good rning. high alert. a failing levee prompts an evacuation in wisconsin. now hundreds are being hold it could be up to a week before they're allowed to return home. bracing for impact. passengers get the scare of their lives as the landing gear malfunctions forcing pilots to make an emergency landing at new york's j airport. >> stay down! stay down! >> this morning the harrowing moments caught inside that plane. and education nation, the most powerful country on earth, butur students rank 24th in math and 17th in science. what's wrongith the system? what can we do to give our children a better future? we're live at the white house to ask those questions of president barack obama "today," monday, ask those questions of president barack obama "today," monday, september 27, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

and good morning, everyone. welcome to "today" on this monday morning. i'm matt lauer live at the white house. ann curry is actually back in new york to kick off education nation over in the learning plaza, ann, good morning to you. >> good morning, matt and take a look at what we have done to the place. we have turned this entire area into a learninglaza and we're bringing together some 300 -- >> anne, thanks very much, eve single american president says they want to become the education president. studies show that the situation over the years has actually gotten worse. 12th graders who were tted for reading levels in 2005 actually scored lower than 12th graders

sted for reading in 1992. 70%f our students graduate. that means 1.3 million student who is should get a diploma don't, they drop out. and roughly half of all teachers leave the profession in th first five years of being in the profession. the problems facing our education system. the question of course is can we fix those problems? 're going to ask those questions of president barack obama in an exclusive, live, 30-minute interview coming up in our 8:00 half hour. >> and i'm sorry if you couldn't hear me earlier, we have turned this entire 30 roc area into a learning plaza. we have got lots of people coming out to speak,arents and teachers and goverent technology experts. also coming up from new york, we're going to be speaking to

that megachurch pastor who's accused of luring young men into sexual relationships. and also we're going t meet the man who survived a very scary crash, we have some pictures of that very scary crash when a guardil sliced right through his suv. he survived, and he'll be talking to us about that. first let's goack inside studio 1a. tamron hall has all the headlines. we began with more flooding in parts of the midwest. a levee iseaking in portage, wisconsin, some people have been evacuated. officials say if more evacuations are needed residents will have to get out by boat. "today"today a panel appoin presiden obama begins its investigation into the oil spill in the gulf of mexico and the administration's response to it. hyundai is recalling more

than 1,000 sonata sedans sold in the u.s. because of potential steering wheel problems. the recall involves sonatas built before september 10. gas prices are holding eady, the average price for regular now $2.69 a gallon. sve berk will become ceo of nbc universal. burke will replace the current ceo who will step down when the deal closes. overseas markets are higher on wall street. erin burnett is on wall street. >> we're talking about the best september since 1939, we'll see if we can hold through the end of the week. and thiseek we'll hear about the government's plan to get out of the aig. taxpayers put $100 billion into

aig. elsewhere tamron companies doing deals, you've got walmart buying the biggest retailer in south after karric africa. so today, confidence is our headline, back to you. an effort to rescue 33 miners trapped in chile, heavy pipes that will be used to make a rescue tunnel arrived on sunday. it will hoist the men up one by one. it is not 7:05 back to ann. >> we'

good morning. we've had light to moderate rain moving through since yesterday. we've had about 0.2 of an inch. radar showing this rin marching south to north and will be with us from time to time throughout the day. right now we're in the 60s throughout most of the region. 67 in washington. highs today onlyn the low 70s. occasional showers. we could get some strong storms this afternoon, tonight into

tomorrow morning which could produce daging winds. sunshine returns tomorrow afternoon into wednesday. >> and that's your latest weather. all right, al, thank you very much,ow to politics and countdown to the midterm election now aut five weeks away. president obama will hit the campaign trail a little later today after our conversation in the 8:00 hour. the president's going to try to recapture some of the campaign 2008 magic with a big rally on a college campus in wisconsin. this as congress decides to hold off on a very contentious vote over taxes. >> reporter: five weeks until election day, the president leaves "today" for a three-day campaign swing. while on the sunday shows it was clear the biggest fight in washington will liky not be resolved until after the midterm, whether to extend the bush tax cuts for the middle class only as the president

wants, or for all taayers, even those with the highest income. >> we're absolutely going to get this done before the end of the year, we may well take it up before the midterms. >> reporter: the white house has been ratcheting up the pressure on the gop. >> they're going to have to explain to their constituents wh they're holding up tax cuts for the middle class. >> the administration wants to extend the tax cuts for middle cls families but not those making more th $250,000 a year, saying to give the wealthy tax breaks will add $700 billion to the deficit, but the republicans are holding out saying not even the highest paid taxpayers can afford a tax hike >> without preventing these tax increases on the american people, it will be the most irresponsible thing at i have seen since i've been in washington, d.c. and i've been here a while. >> reporter: with five weeks to go, many analysts think

democrats will lose control of the house this fall. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell was expressing optism sunday. >> we're competitive in a lot of places. will we win them all? who knows. the delaware congress race w interesting. >> reporter: this time from october 1998, on the subje of evolution. >> you know what? evolution is a myth and even darwin himself -- >> evolution is a myth? have you ever looked at monkey? >> why aren't monkeys still evolving into humans? >> and in a sign of her growing national profile, o'donnell was parodied on "saturday night livewhich had fun with her comments that she once dabbleded in witchcraft. >> and live from new york, it's

saturday night! >> speaking of elections, this could be the week we hear whether white house chief of staff rahm emanuel is moving on to run for mayor of chicago. every indication he will the only question is when and who will replace him. >> savannah guthrie at the white house. it's now ten mines past the hour. lawrence o'donnell is the host of "last word" with wrence o'donnell. five weeks before the midterm election, just how much trouble is the democrats in? >> in 1994 when we had that huge shift and the democts lost the house and the senate. at this point in the process, no one knew that that would happen, there re no polling indications that that would happen, no pundits predicted. this is the worst shape the democrats have ever been in.

>> so the president's team is now putting him on college campuses in a series of appearances to too toyring in those surge voters from 2008, would you characterize that as a hail mary pass. >> what it really is a move back to things that worked in the past. we have seen the psident go into the town hall venue, didn' work so well, having people ask him questions, so now they're putting him back o stage in that celebrity mode. remember what obama's problem was? he was a celebrity, that's when he was the most popular, so now they're ing to put him back in that giant arena with all these fans and try to re-create that feeling. >> some really good news for republicans, a pugh research poll found that 49% of independents are likely to vote for a republic. also at the same time last week, we had these young guns come out with their touted pledge to america, how effective do you think these two bits of news

were in changing the spotlight? >> well, footnote on the young gunrepublicans, they range in age fm 40 to 47. so a nice definition of a young gun. the young gun stuff thathey're advancing, the policies that they're advancing, people aren't really hearing it, what's controlling this is the unemployment numbers. it was badn 1994 when the democrats lost everything, it's 50% worse now, the economic condions control this morning anything else. people say they don't want these unemployment numbers, they want to -- the incumbent is in ouble. >> this kind of economy creates a vote for change and unfounately for the democrats, since they're in control, the word change appears on the ballot as the republicans in a two-party system. >> all this attention about christine o'donnell, we heard about this videotape that emerged over the weekend.

>> we areot relatedf that's your question. i think kelly's related to her, maybe nora is, i don't know. >> what i want to know is, is the delaware seat as important as all the attention that she's being given? >> absolutely, because if the republicans could take the delaware seat, they could probably take the senate. and if this nomination by the republicans is what loses it for the republicans, i'm afraid the phrase senator o'donnell, which i have been trying to give my whole life. but you can tell "saturday night live" wants her to win because they gave the part to a regular cast member, that means they want to use them again and again and again. >> good luck to you on your broadcast. it's great to have you here this morning. and "last word with lawrence o'donnell" is on at 10:00 p.m.

eastern time here on nbc. a scarey scene at jfk airport over the weekend when the crew of a delta connection flight was forced to make an emergency landing after the landing gear on that plane failed to deploy properly. now some passengers aboard the plane actually used their cell phone camer to capture the tense moments, tom costello covers aviation for us, tom, good morning to you. >> good morning, the crew was getting an awful lot of credit for keeping their cool and making it very clear what the passengers shod do as they came in for a very dicey emergency landing without all the plane's laing gear. >> reporter: final harrowing moments as the pilot tells passengers to prepare for an emergency landing. >> brace forrism pact. >> reporter: and the warning from a deadly rious flight attendant. >> stay down! stay down!

>> reporter: among the60 passengers on board, chase and alsondra returning from a business trip. >> the flight attendant was yelling. >> stay down! stay down! >> reporter: delta connection, flight 4951 was flying from atlanta to new york's white planes airport when the plane's right landing gear refused to come down, realizing they may need a bigr airport, the pilots diverteto jfk and ask controllers there to clear a run way. >> the right gear is stuck up, the other two are down. >> would you prefer the 3-1 left or 3-1 right? >> when the landing gear is not coming do, you know you're going to have an accident for sure. the plane is going to swerve in the direction of the retracted gear.

>> reporter: the delicate balancing act, putting the plane down on two of three landing gear. these images from a cell phone captured the sparking flying as the plane's wing dragged on the cement. once out of the plane safely, relief. and praise for the pilot who pulled it off. >> no complaints from me. >> reporter: and from one curious passenger, a question about his interrupted trip to white plains. >> do we still get freent flier miles? >> reporter: delta praised the professionalism of a crew. these days getting a landing gear stuck is rather rare, though it is mechanical, you can get malfunctions, the ntsb will be investigating to see why the gear didn't come down in the

first place. >> tom costello in washington, thank you very much. let's go back to new york and ann. as we have been reporting this morning, this week nbc news isoing to be taking an unprecented look at the state of americs schools. we have got nbc's tom brokaw here to set all things off on learning plaza. >> i have been covering this suect for 4 years and i have done a lot of documentaries for nbc and for other outlets as well. there ha never been a time in america when education is a more critical issue and understand the magnitude of this issue, you simply have to look at the numbers. >> reporter: today, american 15-year-olds rank 24th in math, 17th in science, tenth in literacy. more than a quarter of american students don't graduate from high school, those that do, only half are prepared for colleg

in just one generation, we have dropped from number one, to number 12 in college graduation rates. >> pretty stunning numbers. and as you have been just mentioning, 40 years, what have you seen in terms of what has changed? wh are we in this situation. >> there's been a sea change in terms of attitude, everybody understands that president bush's 43, no child leftbehind, this president's race to the top, the silicon valley billionaires are getting deeply involved. they got to where they are because they were highly educated. they know they have to have an educated constituency to get workers. >> tom brokaw this morning. it's fantastic that you're going to be lending your perspective as we take a look at this all

this week. >> we're going to have mark zuckerberg on later who founded facebook who gave $100,000 to newark. >> let's go back to the white house with matt lauer. >> all right, ann, thank you, and tom thank you as well. politics took center stage this weekend during the season premier of "saturday night live," just inase you missed any of it, here are se highlights. >> now the latest polls have you trailing but that's because of the media's fixation on trivial things, like your talking about dabbling in witchcraft on bill maher's show. >> you guys, i was 16. >> can you think of anything at all from your past that might be problematic? >> no, nothing. >> ts rac is going to tighten up and when it does, it's going to be a real dogfight. >> please don't tell me about dogfights, i kw all about dogfights.

for yourinformation, i used to run a business staging dogfights. >> we probably shouldn't be hearing this. >> exactly, you know what the people ofelaware don't want to hear about it either, they want to hear about the future and taking back the country and restoring the founders' vision. things like that. >> this has gone on long enough. working inlbany is jt like watching "saturday night live." there are a lot of characters, it's funny for ten minutes and then you just want it to be over. >> finally o a serious note, nbc universal's ceo justify zucker announced that he will be stepping down this winter. and i just want to take a chance to express my --

>> they take no prisoners, do they? >> oh, well, it was very funny, i thought on saturday night. >> still ahead from here at the white house, our exclusive half-hour long interview with the president, he h said that the success of our students will determine success of this country in the 21st century. so how do we fix our schools? we'll talk about that with the president at 8:00, but first, this is "today" on nbc.

right here in this neighborhood, i grew up learning strong families and hard work means opportunity. and that starts with good schos. it's a tradition here in maryland-- and why in these tough times i've put education first. we've made record investments in our classrooms... doubled the number of charter schools... and we've frozen college tuiti for four years in a row. and it's working. experts say we now have the number one schools in the nation. when it comes to expanding opportuni in every neighborhood, i know that we must do even better.

coming up, how early should you start your kids in school? i'll take you to a kindergarten class to take a look at some of the challenges facing students and their teachers. and we'llake a look at whether lindsay lohan will go back into rehab. that's coming up after your local news. [ female announcer ] "i can't believe it's t butter"

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>> good morning. it's 7:26 on this monday morning. i'm joe krebs. it feels like -- looks like what a mday morning feels like right now. rainynd dreary out there. tom joins us with the forecast. >> good morning. we need the rain and it continues to fall here in the metro area. over the last three hours radar showing this rain vancing south to north across west virginia, virginia, the district into maryland. this will be with us from time to time throughout the rest of the day. right now we're in the low and mid-60s. highs only the low 70s. passing showers, maybe even some thunderstorms this afternoon, tonight into tomorrow. some isolated storms mht produce some daming winds. we'll dry out after that. the rain is making for a slippery instrumental music ]

[ instrumental music ] four years ago, bob ehrlich got fired as governor of maryland. for good reason. first, he protected tax loopholes for giant cable cable companies. then, he let utilities jack up our rates 72%. and for the last four years, heg

corporations, even a bank that took billions from a taxpayer funded bailout. ehrlich sides with corporate executives again and again and again tell bob ehrlich big banks and billionares don't need help. middle cde do. good morning, everyone. weather certainly making things difficult this morning. earlier accidents is making the trip to the 14th street bridge has been cleared. north of town an accident enter loop at college park, right side of the roadway is tied up. ahead this morning on "today," a live

7:30 now on a monday morning, it's the 27th day of september, 2010. you're looking at a live shot of the white house in washington, d.c. on what is a rainy morning here in washington. just a reminder, in 30 minutes we'll have a exclusive, live, half-hour interview with the president on the state of education inhis country. i'm making my way into the green room, a little different than the green room we have in studio 1a. >> i hope you're not having to keep your voice down so you don't wake up the family. >> i think everybody's probably up and getting ready to go to school, even though we're disrupting things down here. we're going to look at the state of education in this countr many people feel it's in a crisis mode right now. and if you want to kno what's happening inside schools, you've got to get inside classrooms. i' going to start in just a

couple of mutes by taking you to an innovative school up in boston where they think they have found a way to give kids a head start. and also ahead this morning on a much different subject, a pastor of a georgia megachurch is speaking out for the first time about allegations that he used his position to seduce young men. we're going to begin this half hour with actress lindsay lohan, she is reportedly planning to check herself back into rehab following friday's drama that she was ordered to jail without bail only to be freed a few hours later. >> reporter: for lindsay lohan, the trip from court to jail to rehab and back again is becoming a well worn and tired path. her fans, directors, the courts, everyone, it seems, wanting the

h merry go round to stop. just weeks after getting out of rehab, lohan found herself back in court, she had nailed yet another drug test. before meeting the judge, a message on her twitterage read, substance abuse is a disease, which unfortunately doesn't go away overnight. the judge seemed hardly sympathetic. he ordered lohan locked up without bail for four weeks. >> his message was i don't care if you're a celebrity, you're going into jail and then we'll sort things out. >> reporter: but no sooner had she been cuffed and taken away, freedom cost lohan $300,000 and she has to wear that monitoring bracelet. any trust she had built up is gone. >> lohan spent 12 hours and ten minutes in custody. and while most people believe that jail is no place for

treatment, freedom isn't making her any better either. >> treatment is for surrendering and admitting the fact that you can't trust yourself to always make t right decisions. >> reporter: and now hericious circle continues, due i court for a probation hearing next month where the whole process starts all over again. for "today," lee cowan, nbc news, los angeles. and now let's get a check from al roker. >> we have got some moos from minnesota, and you've got your christmas ornaments on. let's check your weather and see what's happening, we'll show

good morning. welcome, needed rain has been moving through the metro area nce yesterday. it continues on this monday morning. where you see the moving color, we're getting some light to moderate showers in the shenandoah valley and panlds of west virginia but farther to the east much of the rain has dissipated at least temporarily. temperatures are in the 60s generally except near the bay and eastern shore in the lower 70s. highs today in the low 70s with occasional showers. some severe storms possible later today. >> and don't fort you can check your weather any time of the day or night, go to the

weather channel on cable or weather.com online. >> a right, al, thanks. now to the scandal that has rocked one of the country's biggest megachurches. eddie long vowed to fight allegations at he coerced young men into having sex with him. >> reporter: eddie long got a hero's welcome at sunday services though there was a mix of opinions about whether he should stay or go. he made it prey clear which option he's taking. hand in hand sunday morning with his wife, accused of pssuring young male church members into sex, long told his megachurch of 25,000 members he isn't leaving them unless they're leaving him and he left little doubt about his future. i am not the man that's being portrayed on the television. that's not me.

at is not me. i am not a perfect man, but this statement i'm going to fight. >> reporter: after denying the allegations through an attorney last week, long broke his silence at the spate of lawits filed against him by former members. robinson was charged this year in connection with a burglary at long's church, he's yet to enter a plea. a fourth lawsuit was filed by a former member of the a satellite church in north carolina. >> by a counsel of my lawyer, they have advised me not to try this case in the media. i am not going to try thi case in the media, it will be tried in the court of justice. and dealt with in the court of justice. and please understand that's the only place i think i'll get justice. >> the men claim long who

travels in first class style, rolls royces, private jets, proximities to president, showered them to jobs, attention as teenagers calling the spiritual sons after coaxing them into sex acts after reaching the age of maturity. >> when i heard the story and i sahow they acted and i saw how they said it and i did it all privately and individually, it's that gut feeling you know, and any jury is going to know they're telling the truth. >> terry williams said she was struck by what long didn't say. >> what's most important is the notion of a young person having their innocence taken away and being traumatized. whether he confesses to that or not, that's an issue that i think should be on the front burner. >> reporter: whatever the truth, long appears ready for the battle of his life >> i feel like david against

goliath. but i have got five rocks and i. >> reporter: prosecutors here in dekalb county, georgia say they do not pl-- >> ron mott, this morni, ron, thanks. and coming up next, matt goes back to kindergarten to find out how to prepare our children for a lifetime of learning. and live at the white house for a candid discussion on the state of education in america. [ boy ] there's something new inse your mcnald'sappy meal.

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and have superior deposit resistance for cleaner lenses. air optix®, the ns you can survive a long day in. go to airoptix.com for a free one-mth trial offer. education nation is brought to you by the university of phoenix, an educated world is a better world. welcome back, everyo, to a special edition of "today" live from the white house. we're going to be sitting down with the president in just a couple of minutes. but first, 67% of our nation's urth graders are reading below the national reading proficiency standards. according to a lot of educators the problem is that many kinder ga gartners are already behind. i recently visited a school in boston where they feel they have

a solution. before you got here, you had to start somewhere. and for most of us, that was kindergarten. blocks, finger paints and learning your a-b-cs, but what about words like curriculum, assessment, academic achievement. these are n longer foreign words to a kindergartner. it's a standard. >> is everybody ready for the first day of kindergarten? >> the first day of kindergarten in boston is filled with themes happening all over the country this month. excitement, a few tears, even by parents.

what's different about this ass is their age, most of these kindergarteners aren't five, they're four, and they're part of a growing trend to get childr started on their educatiol jouey early in life. here in boston they call it kindergarten 1 or k-1. most know it as prk. >> tracey griffith became principal at the eiott fou years ago, it was so important to have pre-k in her school, she said she wouldn't take the job without it. >> we're fully immersing our 4-year-olds in a school day and getting together with the routines and rituals of being a student, being a learner, and starting earlier. >> see, i hear you saying fully immersing 4-year-olds and i start to get a little bit nervous. are you immersing these kids at the cost of fun? >> no, we're immersing them in fun. >> we have a special game

"today," it's a guessing game, who knows who this is? >> spider-man! >> this is spider-man. who is this? >> big bird! >> even if the fun was at my experience. >> you might know it, this is a man. do you know what his name might be? >> maybe peanut butter? >> you think it's peanut butter? >> he's going to come and visit us. >> hi. how are you? >> peanut butter? >> one of the differences beeen pre-k and nursery school is the qualification of the teachers. at the elliott, pre-k teachers must have their masters degree. >> a hat? a heart, sure, where do you want

it? you want it right here? >> you want a big heart or a little heart? >> the statistics are there to support the case for pre-k. student who is attended pre-k were 36% less likely to be held back in kindergarten, passed a literacy test at a % higher rate and were 34% less likely to repeat a grade later on. >> if youet a 4-year-old in the program who's not emotionally ready, do you suggest that that child not be here? >> no, i make sure that he's here. because if he's not ready, he needs to be here. >> it sounds a little like tough love? >> tough love? >> just that you'll get through it, don't cave in t the tears, you'll get through it, you'll be better in the end. >> i never tught of it as tough love, i thk of it as love. >> according to the most recent

study about 75% of our nation's 4-year-old do not have access to a pre-k program and the basic reason given is funding. coming up, our exclusive live interview with barack obama on the state of education of in this country right after these messages. with blackberry torch i can have multiple tabs going, scroll over to it -- there it is. i call it a "future phone." [ laughs ] i use maps if i ne to find an obscure address. it's awesome. and it really makes me feel like this is my city, you know? [ laughs ] ♪ ♪

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thinking about our own education and i was wondering if your parents actually went to college. >> both were high school graduates. >> and my father and mother did not go to college until i did. my mother and i went to college together. we were the first of our family to ever graduate. >> if we want our children to be able to do that, obviously we have got to fixhis. >> we have been talking about how to fix it. we have an exclusive live interview with president obama half your local news. [ animals calling ] ♪ [ pop ]

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you want to replant a forest? maybe you want to rebuild homes for those in need? or, maybe u want to help improve our schools? whatever youant to do, members project from american express can help you take the first step. vote, volunteer or donate for the causes you believe in at membersproject.com. take charge of making a difference. ♪ but i really love my bank ♪ i hate-- didn't quite catch that last bit. i said i really love my bank. right... is there a problem ? it's not really raging, man. uh, we were hoping for more raging ? well, you said write from the heart. yeah... don't do that.

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new pedestrian trafficatterns will be in place this morning near the pentagon's main visitor entrance. they have moved employee checkpoints farther away during weekdays. they are in response to that shooting at the station earlier this year that wounded two police officers and ended up with the gunman dead. we'll take a break and come back and look at our weather forecast and check out the rush [music throughout] finding what you love makes you happy. saving up to 60% every day makes you homegoods happy. love makes you happy. ♪ tell it to go on

it's been a w monday morning. radar showing bands of showers passing south to north over the last three hours. right now there is one band that's in the shenandoahalley that is passing into the panhandle of west virginia but elsewhere a temporary respite. it will be back later this afternoon into tonight and tomrow morning maybe with some storms. 66 loaded with an earlier accident. manassas has cleared but from manassas all the way in it is jammed.

in montgomery county alg i-270 we are bumper to bumper from frederick -- actually from clarksburg headed to points south lanes are open. out on the rails, metro rail, red line delays with a broken-down train. >> in just a few moments on the "today" show a live half-hour interview with president obama building wind farms and expanding clean energy manufacturing. but in america, gridlock has held us back. now, the senate can change that - by passing a renewable electricy standard. it will spur development of clean energy and boost manufacturing in america, creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs. so we can make our own energy future - not just buy it from china. call your senators and urge them to pass a renewable electricity standard today.

from nbc, this is education nation. an interview with president barack oba live from the white house. here's matt lauer. >> and good morning, everyone. i'm matt lauer live at the white house on this monda morning, kicking off a wk long initiative here on nbc universal, we're calling education nation and i thank you for watching on all the different networks of nbc universal. it's important that we give our kids a good education and yet it seems very difficult to plich. a recent poll found that 67% of you feel that the education system in this country right now is in crisis. the most important question of course is can we fix it. i'm joined now by the president of the united states barack obama, mr. esident, thank you for your time. >> thank you for being this program, there's nothing more important than the issue we're

talking about today. >> a third of our opportunities in this country continue graduate. a third aren't college ready when they get their high school diploma and 35 percent of 12th graders are proficient in reading. how did it happen? >> it's been a long time coming. historically, when we first set up the public school systems across the untry, we were leaps and bounds ahead of the vast majority of the countries around the world, that's not true anymore. they're surpassing us in math and science. it ahappened over decades. but part of the challenge is to understand that how well we do economically, whether jobs are created here, high end jobs that support families and sport the future of the american people is going to depend on whether or not we can do something about

these schools. >> when it comes to crisis in education, it's not just a money thing, but it's a money thing. can we spend o way out of it? >> wean't spend our way out of it. when you look at the statistics, our per pupil spending has gone up in the last few years. ev they dot have up to date textbooks, they don't have computers in the classroom. so those who say money makes no difference are wrong, on the other hand, money without reform will not fix the problem. what we have got to do is combine a very vigorous reform agenda that increases stdards, helps ma sure that we have got the best possible teachers inside the classroom, make sure we're clearing ay some of the democratic underbrush that's keeping kids are lrning. >> one of the ways you want to accomplish that is with your

initiative called race to the top. states will compete for money that goes into their education system a the state level if they bring about reform in their communities. while some are applauding it, some have criticized it because it's a competition, it's kind of a march madness surrounding this mone when we should be funding all the states. >> the federal government provides assistance to all states under a formula system, espeally to help poorer school districts so they can buy supplies, make sure they can hire supplemental rding instructors and so forth. so that hn't changed. but that money because it was in a formula, everybody was getting it no matter what you did, wasn't really a catyst for reform. so what we said is let's set aside a small portion about $4 billion and let's say you've got to compete for this and you've got to compete around things

that reformers know make a difference. high standards, accountability, really tining teachers effectively, making sure low performing schools are being boosted . 34 states already have changed their laws, where previously all that stuff that was stuck in state legislators, now suddenly they're starting to make changes. it's probably the most powerful reform in a century. >> why $4 billion sounds like a lot, but it is a fraction, why not make more federal funding dependent onhe kind of reforms you just talked about. >> what we want to do is make sure that we're still helping poor school districts that just don't have enoh money. but it turns out that $4 billion, although a small fraction of the money that we spend on school is engh to get people's attention.

i'm not going to lieo you, there's going to be resistance as we move forward, a lot of members of congress say to emselves, if my state loses the competition, ion't feel as good about this, even if i initiated reforms. >> how do the kids feel if their state didn't compete as well as another state, they're out of luck. >> that's why we want to make sure that every state is getting help from the federal government. there's no state tha can't win this thing is because all they have to do is say we're going to take seriously those things like making sure you've got a terrific teacher in each classroom and making sure we have got high standards and accountability, everstate can accomplish that it's just gettin through the resistance that often tim builds up in these states. >> there are some good and great teachers in this country, there are also som mediocre and poor teachers in this country. can real reform take place unless y identify those

mediocre and poor teachers and remove them? and when i say remove them, i don't mean shuffle them from school to school or put the in a room, i mean fire them. >> first of all i think everybody who looked at this said the single most important ingredient inside the classroom is the quality of the teacher and there are some terrific teachers out there. my sister teaches and when you hear storiesbout how hard they work when they ce home from school, they're still doing lesson plans, often times in tough schools serving as mentors. one of the things i want to do lift up the teaching professi to honor the way it needs to be honored in our society. and by the way, when i travelled to china for exale and i sit down with the mayor of shanghai and he talks about the fact that teaching is considered one of the most prestigiousnes and a teacher is getting paid the same

as an engineer, that, i think accounts for how well they're doing in terms of boosting their education system. having said that, what is absolutely true is that if we can't identify teachers who are sub par, give them the opportunity to get better, but if they don't get better at a certain point saying these teachers should not be in the classroom, if we don't do that, then we are doing a disservice to our kids and the school system has to be designed not for the adults, it's got tbe designed for the children. >> there's aew documentary out there right now that's called waiting for superman. they're saying that teachers iss unions are set up to protect their members and protect those mediocre and bad teachers and getting in the way of real reform. is that a fair assessment in your opinion?

>> here's what is true, oftentimes teachers unions are designed to make sure that their membership are protected against arbitrary firings, i am a strong supporr of aotion that a union can protect its members and help be part of the solution as opposed to part of the problem. what is also true is that sometimes thateans they are resistant to change when things aren't working. to their credit, you have had a lot of unions who are now working th states on his reform plans that include things like charter schools, include things like pay for performance and higher standards and accountability for teachers and so we have seen states be able to work with teachers unionso bring about reform as opposed to resist them. >> if you could speak to the membership of the two most powerful teachers unions right

now and tell them what they must do starting today to be a legitimate partner in reform. >> as president i can speak to them and what i have said to them is that we want to work with you, we're not interesting in imposing changes on you because the truth of the matter is that if teachers aren't feeling god about their profession, they're not going to do a good job in the classroom, but you can't defend a status quo in which a third of our kids are dropping out, you can't defend a status quo when you've got schools across the country that are dropout factories where more than half of th kids are dropping out. in those schoo you've got to have radical change and radical change is something that's in the interest of the students and ultimately in the interest of teachers. the vast majority of teachers want to do a good job, they didn't go into teachg for the money, they went into teaching

because they want to make a difference. we have got to identify teachers who are going well, teachers who are not doing well, we have got toive them the support and the training to do well. and if some teachers aren't doing a good job, they've got to go. >> you want to identify the l lowest 5% of schools and turn them over to charter schools. that could double the number of charter scols. are you worried that you wod dilute some quality in charter schools? >> crter schools are not a panacea. one of the things when you're looking at school reform, it turns out there are no silver bullets here, reform is hard, it's systematic, it tes time, but we know that there are some charters who have figured out how to do a very good job in the lowest income schools with the kids who are two, three grade

levels behind and yet they can achieve 95% graduationrate boost reading scores and math scores very high. what we have got to do is to look at the success of these schools, find out how do we duplicate them and make sure that we are still holding charter schools accountable the same which we are all the schools. we shouldn't say just because a school is a charter they're an excellent school, because there are some poor perfoing charters. what i'm interested in and what my secretary of education is interested in is fostering these laboratories of excellence. if we lengthen the school day here, or we give them a little more home work there, or we're setting aside timeor persona development for teachers here, or we're building a culture of excellence among kids a tha school, that works, once we find out something works, we want to

import that into every school not just charter schools. >> i think people a going to be talking about a documentary, they talk about the lack of choice that people, you mentioned charter schools in those very bad neighborhoods, the lack of choice that people in our poorest of neighborhoods have, if there's a low performing school and there's a charter school, theumber of applicants for the few positions at that charter school can be enormous and so what happens by law is that the kids are put into a lottery a literally and figuratively they future is down to their name beg drawn out of a hat. >> it's heart breaking and when you see these parents in the film, you are reminded that i don't care what people's income levels are, the stake in their kids, their wanting desperately to make sure their kids are able to sceed is so powerful and

it's obviously difficult to watch to see these parent who is know that -- our goal is to make all schoo high quality schools, make every classroom one where if a kid is showing up, taking the responsibility seriously, doing what they're supposed to do, they're going to be ae to succeed, they're going to be able to read and have high math scores. what we now know is that there are schools that the work even in the toughest circumstances and once we know that, it's inexcusable that we don't make sure that every school is performing at that same level. >> we ask parents to give us some e-mail questions. we had bethany who wrote us, one of our biggest concerns in education is that parents are rarely held accountable for their children's education t

blame for failing test scores always falls on the teacher. the responsibility of education should be sharedy teachers, administrators and parents. why doesn't anyone ever hold parents accountable. >> there has not been a speech i have made on ecation over the last five years in which i haven't said the exact same thing. if the kid's coming home from scho and the parents aren't checking to see if the do their home work or watch tv, that's going to be a problem. and that's by the way true here in this white house. malia and sasha arereat kids and great students, but if you gave them a choice, they would be happy to sit in front of the tv all night long every night. at some point you have to say, your job right now, kid, is to learn. and i'm going to check with your teachers and i'm going to make sure that you're doing your home work and you're not doing anything else until you've done your home work and that kind of attitude, i think makes a huge difference at every level.

one thing i want to point out is that there's no dot that the schools in the toughest neighborhoods andhe poorest neighborhoods are often times the ones that are poorest performing, they are in crisis. but onef thehings that everybody needs to understand is that across the board, in middle class suburbs in schools that are considered actually pretty good, you are still seeing a decline in terms of math and science performance and one of the things that we are very excited about because we need to focus on math and science, my administration is announcing that we are going to specifically focus on training 10,000 newath and science teachers, we have got to boost performance in that area. we used to rk at the top, we are now 21st in science, 25th in math. that is a sign of long-term decline that has to be reversed and so we're going to be putting big emphasis on math and

science education and part of that means getting better tehers, but part of it also means parentnderstanding that their kids need to excel in those subjects in particular. >> you're going to make a lot of friends or a lot of enemies here. mr. cohn's sixth grade class in cincinnati, president obama, we understand there are discussions regarding the idea of attending school year round, do you think we should attend school year round? if so why? >> we now have our kids go to school about a month les than most other advanced countries. and that month makes a difference. it meanshat kids are losing a lot of what they learn durin the school year during the summer, it's especially severe for poorer kids who may not be -- may not see as many books in the house during the summers, aren't getting as many educational opportunities. here's an example of where

you've got a good idea, make sure our kids are in school longer, that means the school is open, you've got to pay teachers, custodial staff, et cetera, but that would be money well spent. >> kelly burnett on our plaza, she's from nassau county, florida, kelly, good morning, what'sour question for president obama? >> thank you for taking my question president obama, as a father of two very delightful and seemingly very bright daughters, i wanted to know if you think that malia and sasha would get the same kind of education at a d.c. public school compared to the elite private academy that they're attending now. >> thanks for the question, kelly and i'll be blunt with you, the answer is no right now. the d.c. public school systems e struggling, they have made some important strides ove the last several years to move in

the direction of reform. there are some terrific individual schools in the d.c. syem. and that's true by the way in every city across the country. there are some great public schools that are on par with any blic school in the country. a lot of times you get tests in, or if the lottery pick for you to be able to get into those schools and so those options are not available for enough children. i'll be very honest with you, given my position, if i wantsed to find a great public school formal leah -- for malia and sasha to be in, we could probably maneuver to do it. but for a mom and a dad who are working hard but who don't have a bunch of connections, don't have a lot of choice in terms of where they live, they should be getting the same quality education for their kids as anybody else and we don't have

that yet. >> kelly, thank you for your questi. >> one more question, how do you inspire those teachers you talked about, the ones that are so impoant, how do you inspire a young college stunt who's considering going into teaching, who sees budgets being slashed, seeing teachers have to dipnto their own pocket book for classroo supplies and now sees new pressure to get their kids to perform in a system that a lot of people think is broken, how do you inspire the next generation of teachers? >> first of all, there is nothing more important than teaching, i genuinely believe this. i don't know a teacher who can't look back and say, you know what? here are so many lives that i have touched, so many people who i have had influence over and each of us have memories of some great teacher who steered us in the right direction. what i also want to make sure is that if they go into teaching, they can stay in teaching, they

can afford it which means that we have got to raise teacher pay, and to professionalize it if you want to be a master teacher, you can make more money. that's true of any profession. we have got to make sure they have a structure around them in which they can succeed and if we do those things, i tnk there are tons of kids who want -- the teach for america program, you see some of the smartest kids in the country applying and often times havi to be on waiting lists to get in. the problem is that we can't attract great young people to go into teachi, the problem is after two or three years they start dropping out. they feel discouraged because no matter how hard they'reorking in the css room, thejust can't afford it once they start trying to raise a family, particularly in urban area where is the cost of living is higher and they don't feel they're getting enough support fromhe principal and the school district. >> so you reform that system and

they will come. >> they will come and anybody who's tching, we're going to have to fill about aillion teaching slots around the country and i want young people to undstand that there is not a more important profession for the success of our economy over thlong-term than making sure that we have got great teachers in the classroom. >> some other topics, recently the poverty rate in this country was announced, it's at 14.3%. that means roughly 44 million americans are living at or below the poverty level. the poverty level is $22,000 a year for a family of four. so consider a family of four making $30,000 or $40,000 they're not living the dream either, they're struggling every single week. howan a president hear those numbers and not decide to declare this some sort of national emergency. >> we have gone through the rst recession since the great

depression and although the steps my administration has taken to stem the crisis and stabilize the situation, we're still in the midst of the after effects of that, when you've got a lot of people underemployed, it means that the poverty rate is going to go up. that means taking the steps tt i've been pushing for, making sure we he tax breaks for companies investing here in the united states, making sure tha the small business bill that i will sign today makes sure they encourage investment, building infrastructure so we are improving our ability to perform internationally, all those things are going to make a difference because the single most impornt anti-poverty program we can initiate is making sure there's enough job growth out there. >> last time we sat down you said that the recovery would not be a jobless recovery.

it seems to me i'm listening to more and more economists who don't agree with that. >> here's the challenge. it's not that this is a jobless recove recovery. we have seen eight months in a row of private sector job growth. we're actually seeing more job growth soar in this recovery than we did in the last recovery back in 2001. the problem is we just lost so many jobs because of the crisis that we have got a much bigger hole to fill and that means we're going to have to accelerate job growth and we have got to do everything we can to focus on that and that means making sure that anything we do, we're spending that money wisely, and one of the major disagreements i have got with e republicans right now has to do with tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. you and me. you and i, matt, we're not likely to spend any additional tax cut because whenever we need

for our families we can afford right now. what we need are tax cuts for the middle class who are struggling and if they get a tax cut, they're likely to spend it, which means that a small business is potentially going to get a customer and we're going to see job growth. so we can't spend $700 billion on a tax cut that is not going to spur job growth. we can spend money on things like infrastructure, on things like school construction, on making sure that sll businesses are getting loans because those are the things that are more likely to generate the job growth we need. >> you remember velma hart, who was a woman who said she was one of your biggest supporters, and she was exhausted defending you. it seems to me what she was saying and i hav heard others say as of late, mr. president is that there's a feeling tha in some way you have lost touch with the struggles of the average person on the street. i say it with some sense of

irony because you began you career in public service as a community organizer, that is all about getting in touch with people on the streets, so how canhis criticism be coming up? >> velma i think subsequently was interviewed and she talked about the fact that she said look, the president's really trying, a lot of things i think are right, but it's just not happening fast enough. everybody's feeling that frustration right now. i feel it, acutely. and, you know, the fact of the matter is that as long as unemployment i as high as it is, as long as we haven't recovered as quickly as we should have, people are going to be hurting and even if they think that i know they're hurting, what they're asking is, when are you going to be able to do something concrete that allows me to get a job or make sure that i can pay my bills or

make sure that i don't lose my house, and all can communicate to the american people is that every single day, the thing that i wake up and the thing that i go to bed with is the fact that there are too many people out there who are doing the right thing, working hard and are having a tough time in this economy, we're doing everything we can to make se they have an opportunity to live out the american dream. >> we have five weeks before the midterm election. you said in a speech recently, you said the repuicans, they're treating me like a dog. former presint clinton said he doesn't think that democrats and you included have been rigorous enough in pushing back against some of the republican attacks. mr. president, do you intend to change your tone or your etion

in terms of your pushing back. >> well, i think that you have heard me speak around the country over the last several months, i think that it's clear, i have got a very sharp difference on a lot of issues. when i say republicans, i really should say republican leadership, i think there's a lot of wonderful people out there who consider themselves republicans or indepennts who have maybe some criticisms of my administration, but basically recognize we have got to solve some big problems, we have got be serious, we have got to base our decisions on facts. what i'm seeing out of the republican leadership over the last several years has been a set of policies that are just irresponsible and we saw in their pledge to america a similar set of irresponsible policies, they say they want to balance the budget, they propose $4 trillion worth of tax cuts

and $16 billion in spending cut and then they say we're going to somehow magically balance the budget, that's not a serious approach. so the question for voters over the next five weeks is who is putting forward policies that have a chance to move our country forward so that our schools have improved, so that we have world class infrastructure, so that we're serious about helping small business, we're serio about getting a handle on our spending an who's just engaging in rhetoric, and if that debate is taking place over the next five weeks, we are going to do just fine. >> rahm emanuel, your chief of staff is considering a run for the mayor's office in chicago. a lot of people think his time is getting short to make that decision. has he communicate his decision to you? >> i think that rahm will have to make a decision quickly because running for mor in chicago is a serious enterprise. >> has he told you what he wants

to do? >> he hasn't told me yet. >> would you support him and endorse him in that race? >> i have said i think he will be an excellent mayor, but until he makes that decision, i'm not going to be to speculate -- >> some of you will return to re

8:30 on a monday morning. it's wet morning in the northeast. look at these people who are still with us in rockefeller plaza. a huge structure has been built temporarily for a call to action over our current education system, at needs to be done to fix it. we have got al roker and tamron

hall out here in the rain. and we'll be talking with mat after his interview with the president. we're going to meet a man who survived a very frightening accident when he fell asleep at the wheel and impaled his suv on a guardrail. >> september is prostate cancer awareness month, wt are the warning sign at what age should men start being screened? we have got some important life saving information coming up. >> andhe five best places to retire, interesting topic "today." >> tamron does not like to outside in the rain. >> i like the rain.

od morning. we have a temporary respite from the rain right now. as we look at the radar, there is one band of rain that's moving north out of the panhandle of west virginia into western ryland. some other showers in frederick county, maryland, and farther to the north. those are moving to the north and pulling away. we will likely have some other bands of rain moving in later this afternoon. right now we're in the 60s generally and it's only going to peak around low 70s for highs. for this afternoon into tonight and tomorrowmorning, there's also a chance of storms, some of which could produce damaging winds. >> and as we kick off ore special look at education in new york, our friends are showing a

special education challenge. john hayes from erican express, good to see you. tell us about this challenge. >> first of all, i'm pleased to announce that american express will date $1 million for school supplies if we can get 100,000 people to come to members project.com/pledge this week and pledge to do something good for their local school system. >> why are you putting tt challenge out there. >> because we want to get as many people as possible involved in education, edution is the future and we believe it is importanand members project is about giving bk to the community. >> how long do people have to do this. >> they have until october 1, so they have until friy of this week to go on to members project.com/pledge and pledge to make a difference. >> thanks a lot, al, and coming up next, we're going to be >> thanks a lot, al, and coming up next, we're going to be talking about how to protect men

right here in this neighborhood, i grew up learning strong families and ha work means opportunity. d that starts with good schools. it's a tdition here in maryland-- and why in these tough times i've put education first. we've made record investments in our classrooms... doubled the number of charter schools... and we've frozen college tuition for four years in a row. and it's working. experts say we now have the numb one schools in the nation. when it comes to expanding opportunity in every neighborhood, i know that we must do even better.

"today's" health is brought to you by dannon activa. september is prostate cancer awareness move, a disease that affes one out of every six man. and as one new york man found out, early detection can be the dishes between life and death. >> i'm a lot yearses old, i was diagnosed with prostate cancer when i was 55 years old. i was totally shocked that i had cancer, i lived a charmed life until then. i was active playing softball, i was a basketball player, i did everything outdoors, i was always knock on wood healthy. i wasn't in my family history

either. ound the time i turned 50, i started to see a doctor more regularly. he saw that there was a little elevated psa, a psa is a part of the blood test that they take a reading for. initially it was over 6, when i went tohe docr it was over 4. they couldn't feel any growth or any swelling in the area so he suggest they would do the biopsy at that point. the biopsy determined that i had the beginning stages of cancer. my family was probabl as astonished as i was when i was diagnosed. i don't think they would have ever thought it because i was always the little league coach and the soccer coach and the guy on the sidelines that's always around. there are no symptoms for prostate cancer, there was no difference in any lifesty otr than the fact that they said that i had it. and if you didn't believe them, you would think, geez, i'm still

the same person, but if i ignored it, i wouldn't be here as long as i am right w. >> joining us now is the a urologi urologist, a chief of robotic surgery and he also treated howard. tell us about what is proste cancer? >> prostate cancer is a tumor of the pros fate. and we see this in younger and younger men. it's known as the silent killer. so there are no symptoms, howard had no symptoms, so it's found by checking the psa, and lz the physical exam. what we saw with howard is that i see these kind of patients coming through the office all the time and i feel i'm privileged to be in a position to save their lives, but there are families behind these prostates, soe're not just taking care of the prostates, but their quality of life also. >> are there certain males at

risk more than others? >> if the first relative's father, brother, uncle has prostate cancer, americans are 3-1 at higher risk. certainly screening helps starting at the age of 40 and every year after that. the key is not necessarily to act on thatnumber, we want to have the psa, but look at the velocity of the rise of that. no doctor will ever act on just the number. look at the whole patient, look at their hisry and see how it's going up a based on that you can make a good recommendation to your patients. >> and i was kind of surprised to hear you say that you should stt getting screened at 40? >> it's interesting, because in the last 3,000 surgeries that we have done, about 10% of them are young men. as we see in howard's case, he's around 55, but we see pients in their early 40s whe they have a significant prostate cancer. you're acting like a detective who really see who has an

aggressive cancer, who has a low risk prostate cancer. >> and the good news is if this is caught early, it's 90% curable. >> what's intesting is that in 2010, we have many options, we have radiation, we have surgeries, my work is mostly robotic surgery which we have focused on saving the quality of life, which is a sexual function. these patients arenly spending a day in the hospital, going home early with no blood loss. but the take home message is find the experienced surgeons because technology the hands of people who are not qualified can actually hurt the patients. so the centers of excellence where they do a lot of these cases those have good outcomes and we're talking about national education week, if as a surgeon "today" you constantly lookt your date and you're constantly looking to make it better and better for your patients. >> are there steps that men can take to lower their risk for prostate cancer?

>> exercising, a healthy diet, checking up every year with a physical exam and psas absolutely will lower the risk. but you have the genes and as we get older, we have higher risk of prostate cancers, those are not really avoidable. >> and we'll be back in a moment, but first this is "today" on nbc. [ male announcer ] the turn changes everything. ♪ the turn will make you think. ♪

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now, the senate can change that - by passing a renewable electricity standard. it will spur development of clean energy and boost nufacturing in america, creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs. so we can make our own energy future - not just buy it from china. call your senators and urge them to pass a renewable electricity standard today. martin fletcher has covered the middle east for more than 340 years. all 110 miles of it from leban to banza. the new book "walking israel" a personal search for the soul of a nation. martin, good morning. >> good morning, thank you. >> having seen you for so many

years, going so fast, covering every thinkable, unthinkable disaster, war, familiar anyonnee you the idea to slow down and walk? >> i needed to slow down and also i need to look at israel from a fresh perspective. i did a two week walk and i did anotheweek of -- i wanted to look at not only the country at war that i had reported on for so long, it's another country there. it's a country of incredible achievement and wonderful people and excitement as you know. that's what i wanted to show in my book, the view of israel, a country that -- certainly people used to call me and say is it safe to come and visit israel? and then i would say sure it is, then a week later they call me and say it's a gat place, i had no idea.

so i wanted to write a book about that great place that people had no idea about. >> still you also had a surprise or two ahead. you're a man who knows the story, both sides of it and you're restricted because of the needs of news to look at only one side of it, in other rds the intensity, the difficulty, the war, so what was surprising to you? >> well, you know, it didn't surprise me, actually, because i knew that this was a different place than the one -- we only look at it from one perspective. so what i enjoyed so much about it was the people in it. and the extra dimension reporting on the place. >> for example, rogers cafe, the men there, you immediately laughed, what was it that you learned from them? >> when i went through ere, i thought this was a boring place. and then i went to this cafe to begin my coverage every morning

r coffee and i went around chasing the bombs for weeks. and in this cafe, i met some people, who came from other countries and they all said the same thing, which i have heard many times before, by the way, if it was up to us, we would make peace with the arabs in five minutes. they went you better win, you better kill as many as y can. it was a revealing place to be. because all these people wer having coffee in the morning. it just showed you how resilient these people are. >> what about the lesson which you're intimating about the idea of living together. was there hope that you had found that you hadn't found before about the possibility of peace? because this is one for decades we have won, but you've been reporting on the possibility of ch. >> one reason stayed so long in israel reporting was because

i always believed in the peace process. i thought i want to be here because this time it is going to work. and i have been wrong every time. what you see when you walk along the coast of israel, especially in the north, with 70% of israelis live in the coastal plain of rael, we don't report on those people. a million arabs are actually israeli citizens and they live de by side with israel, not in perfect world harmony, but they get on well enough. and it shows you if there was a peace agreementthere's no reason at all why jews and arabs can't live in peace. >> there is such a close genetic connection, there ought to be peace. >> cousins >> cousins, the book is called "walking israel." martin fletcher, thank you so much this morning. we're back in a moment.

four years ago, bob ehrlich got fired as governor of maryland. r good reason. first, he protected tax loopholes for giant cable cable companies. then, he let utilities jack up our rates 72%. and for the last four years, he worked as a hired gun for big corporations, even a bank that took billions from a taxpayer funded bailout. ehrlich sides with corporate executives again and again and again tell bob ehrlich big banks and billionares don't need help.

middlede do. back at 8:51 p.m.. >> a man was driving back to his college in idaho when he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed

impaling his suv into a guardrail. >> not a scratch? >> one scratch, maybe a few bruises, but that was about it. >> you are a lucky man, this guardrail pierces your car, pierces the engine block, makes its way into the passenger compartment, when you woke up and you realized what happened how long did it take you to realize how lucky you were? >> it wasn't until after everything was done when i was getting my stuff out of the car that i was actually ae to figure out how close i was to getting hit by the guardrail and howonderfulfully blessed i was to come outen ska eunscathed. >> you were actually 2/3 into the long drive. what do you want to say to those sclej students who have to make that long drive? >> i just want to tell them that

you shouldn't drive alone, if you do drive alone, get plenty of sleep before hand and, like, with my accident, i would have been completely okay if i had had a passenger with me because i cld have switched off wi them or they could have taken the steering wheel when i fell asleep or something. >> this is a big problem, people driving while fatigued, falling asleep. what precautions are you going to take so something like this doesn't happen again? >> every time i go on a big trip, i'm goingo get plenty of sleep, see if i can get somebody to drive with me and take basic precautions the seat belt, make sure everything on the car is working okay. >> do you think it was the seat belt that saved your life? >> the seat belt and the air bags as well. >> we're glad to have you here

and stay safe and i think you have given somed a advice this morning. still help ahead, i know a lot of people, something that adam is not going to be thinking about for a long time. but for those of us who are geing closer -- >> what are you talking about? >> the next five best places to retire. >> but first, your local news and weather. ♪

♪ i like your mes ♪ i like the clothes you wear ♪ i like the way you sing ♪ and when you dance wi me ♪ou always make me smile ♪ don't know why i love you [ male announcer ] we believe you're at your best when you can relax and be yourself. and at thousands of newly refreshed holiday n hotels, you always can. holiday inn. stay you. >>:55 is your time now. 69 degrees. a rainy day ahead and it's led to a messy comme. god morning, let's get right to jerry edwards to update us on some problem spots.

jerry, good morning. >> good morning to you. indeed a very tough morning. this is southeast washington coming up on south capital street trying to get to the douglfrederick douglass bridgd s douglas. over to 70, loaded up, no accidents just volume but plenty of it. one more stop back to virginia. if you're headed northbound 395, lanes are open but an accident gw parkway northbound at the key bridge. ve tough morning. nobody is catching a break. >> thank you. how long will the rain last? we're back with your forecast promise me low prices. and sck to it. like seriously l prices. [ male announcer ] at safeway, we made a promise of low prices. and we're keeping it. [ female announcer ] with club card specials like pork loin rib half, 99 cents a pound and campbell's select harvest soup only a each. i need to know that when i'm here, the low prices will be too. monday, tuesday, everyday. i'm a big fan of everyday.

[ male announcer ] and with tusands of everyday low prices, you'll save all over the store. [ female announcer ] low prices you can count on. at safeway, that'our promise. that's ingredients for life. [ female announcer ] low prices you can count on. right here in this neighborhood, i grew ulearning strong families and hard work means opportunity. and that starts with good schools. it's a tradition here in maryland-- and why in these tough times i've put education first. we've made record investments in our classrooms... doubled the number of charter schools... and we've frozen college tuition fofour years in a row. and it's working.

experts say we now have the number one schools in the nation. when it comes to expanding opportunity in every neighborhood, i know that must do even better. good morning. we're getting a respite from the steadier rain we had overnight. right now radar showing still a band of steady rn the panhandle of west virginia heading into western maryland north into pennsylvania.

elsewhere just a few scattered light showers around. later today some other bands of modera to heavy rain moving in, especially tonht into tomorrow morning, maybe some damaging winds. >> tom, thank you. news 4 will continue the conversation on educationation on midday coming up at 11:00. we'll talk to school leaders we'li was driving in northern california. my son was asleep. i really didn't see it coming. i didn't realize i was drifting into the other lan [ kim ] i was literally falling asleep at the whe. it got my attention, telling me that i wasn't paying attention. the car hit the brakes faster than i could. i had no idea the guy in front of me had stopped short. but my car did. my car did. thankfully, my mercedes did. [ male announcer ] a world you can't predict... demands a car you can trust. the e-class. the best or nothing. that is what drives us.

back now with more on this monday rning, the 27th day o september, 2010. as you can see a damp morning here in rockefeller plaza. the crisis of education in america, it's part of our week long education nation initiative here on the networks of nbc universal. the president told matt that becoming competitive in education is about reform and out getting the best possible teachersn the classrooms and you can't just thr money at the problem, so you're going to hear what the president had to sayn just a few moments. >> if you're lucky enough to

have -- we're going to check out "money" magazine's top five places to retire, wheer you're looking for rest and relaxation, medical care -- lindsay lohan is -- >> we have got tamrohall in for me and the news desk. >> good morning, everyone. today president obama said there's nothing more important than education, he spoke with matt at the wte house, but a recent survey indicating 67% of americans say the education system is in crisis. the president said it will take more than money to fix the problem with schools. >> we can't spe our way out of it, and i think that when you look at the statistics, the fact is that our per pupil spending has gone up over the last coue of decades, even as results have

gone down. money plays a factor and obviously there's some schools where mon plays a big factor, they don't have up to date textbooks, they don't have computers in the classroom. those who say money makes no difference are wrong. on the other hand, money without reform will not fix the problem and what we have got to do is combine a very vigorous reform agenda that increases standards that helps make sure that we have got the best possible teacrs inside the classroom. we have got to combine that with deploying resources effectively. >> the president als told matt that he backs a longer school year in the u.s. saying it could make a difference in performance. officials are keeping a watch on a levee that was close to failing on nday in wisconsin. people have evacuated their homes in portage, wisconsin. and in minnesota, a massive cleanup is underway after extensive flooding there.

the pastor of a powerful georgia church vowed suny to fight allegations that he lured four young men into sexual relationships. thousands backed the new birth missionary baptist church to hear bishop long -- bishop long is an outspoken opponent of gay marriage. 60 passengers aboard the delta connection flight from atlanta were told to brace for impact. the plane landed safely with only 2/3 of its landing gear deployed and sparkslew up as the right wing scraped the ground. hyundai is recalling nearly 120,000 sonata sedans sold in the u.s. somef the cars have steering wheels that are not properly connected and could result in loss of control. ctical hardware arrived this weekend at the site of that mine collapse in chile where 33

miners have been trapsed since august. pipes will form an energy tunnel designed to slide through the pipes like an elevator car. and wall street's money never sleeps took the top spot at the box office over the weekend. the new michael douglas film took in $19 million. legend of the guardians was second. the town was third. i really want to see that legends of the guardians. >> i think there's a lot of reason to go to the box office -- all three movies look good to me. >> the least bit being that music. >> i t

good morning. the rain has tapered off to some scattered sprinkles around the region. right now the radar is showing one band of some light to moderate rain moving out of the panhandle of west virginiainto western maryland. there's a couple of other sprinkles in western howard county. these are all heading off to the north. later perhaps in another two or three hours we'll have ather surge of rain coming in. might get some thunder and lightning lar on this afternoon, overnight tonight into tomorrow morning with heavy downpours. perhaps some damagg winds. there's a slight chance of that.

>> and that's your latest weather. actress lindsay lohan is a free woman this morning. she was taken into custody after testing positive for drugs. that's a violation of her probation. but she didn't spend even o night in jail. >> reporter: for lindsay lohan, the trip from court to jail to rehab and back again is becoming a well worn and tired path. her fans, the directors, the courts, everyone, it seems, wants the merry go-round to stop, and yet the cycle continues. just a few weeks after getting out of rehab, lohan found herself back in court. with higfashion matching the high drama, she failed yet another drug test. a message on her twitter page read substance abuse is a disease which unfortunately doesn't go away overnight. the judge seemed hardly sympathetic. the judge ordered her locked up

without bail for four weeks. >> the lesson was, you have had enough chances, i have to get your attention here, i don't care if you're a celebrity, you're going into jail and then we'll sort things out. >> reporter: but no sooner had she been cuffed and taken away, her lawyer filed an appeal. once again, she has to wear that not so fashionable monitoring bracelet. any trust she built up is gone. in the end, lohan spent 12 hours and ten minutes in custody. and while most agree that jail is certainly no place for treatment, freedom isn't making her any better either. >> the goal of treatment is surrendering and admitting that you need help. >> reporte for now, her vicious circumstanle continues. she's due in court for a probation hearing next month

where it all starts all over again. >> courteney cox is a correspondent for the todayshow.com. there are reports that lindsay lohan is voluntarily checked herself into a rehab right now. >> there are aot of sources within the lohan circle saying that's something she's going to do before a court orders her to do so, that's part of faking responsibility. but at this point, everyone is so tired of the routine, there's not going to be any tide change or shift in perspective until she does clean up and gets back to working and proves she can be a responsible ult. >> this is another example of a celebrity being treated differently than an average person. is that the case? is there any indication that at's the case? >> yes and no, if the law doesn't allow for the judge to reverse that decision, it wouldn't have been reversed, speaking about the one that landed her in jail for only a matter of hours instead of until october 22, that he saw on

friday. if the law didn't allow for that, they wouldn't change it even for a celebrity. but if you have certain attorneys that are running in circles, they have the judge's ear more than another attorney they have the money to keep throwing at this situation. >> is it likely she knew she was getting out within 12 or 24 hours when she was arrested? >> i think it was likely that she knew her attorney was going to move mountains to ensure she's out if that was the case. i think also at this point, shaun chapmanolly is part of the problem. you've got a woman that's -- it's not just failing drug tests, it's not just partying too much. she actually goes out and breaking the law. she's gotten arrested for getting into accidents with innocent people because of her behavior. this is a dangerous situation, and at some point you need to quit doing evething you can to put her out on the streets. >> and what was she reportedly doing last night.

>> last night lindsayohan tweeted that she had gone to a teen outreach center in los angeles where she was signing autographs and i don't know that she should be going to a teen outreach cter and acting like some sort of example at this point i time but it's obviously a publicity move. does she have a good friend that can be there for her? >> no, as a matter of fact she does not. the people closest to lindsay don't recognize that she has a problem and those that do try to help, she steps in and says that's it, you're out, you don't understand me, you don't get me. it's a sad story, this is happening all over america, this isn't just one celebrity that's suffering from this. but at the end of the day, it would be great if she could be an example for what to do when things go really wrong and how you fix it. >> she's fming this biopic on this linda love lays.

>> part of the problem here is every time she has a sort of error, she's able to get work. if u're a normal person, your job don't keep giving you chance after chance after chance, normal people don't say you think i have a problem, but, hey, i'm on the cover of vanity tear. >> we're all talking about promoting the movie. >> we wouldn't be talking about linda lovelace if -- up next the five best cities to retire, according to "money" magazine, that's right after this. subway has breakfast. and it's a slam dunk. i like my breakfast sanich with green peppers, onion, banana peppers and mustard. i like eggs with black forest ham on wheat. with everything. i like a little kick. that's a good call. i li mine with egg whites. and... a napkin.

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the top five places to retire, from a low cost of living to improving your education or your golf swing are all factors you need to coider before hanging up your hat. what was your focus this time around? you guys do this every year? >> and every yea we look at a differt type of community, and this year we did college town, spifically towns that allows seniors to continue learning, so they can take anything from history, long, arts, religion. retirees love these programs because they use them to expose themsees to new things they wouldn otherwise or they can fill in the gaps from their

jun undergraduate years. >> hanover, new hampshire. >> what makes hanover so unique ishat there's so many rural new england villages that have beauty and nature and you can go hiking and kayakingnd so you have the outdoors, but on top of that, you have an intellectual and cultural life that's like you're in a major metropolitan area because of darth mouth, there's a local opera, dances, ballets, lots of good restaurants, so hanover is a unique blend of both brueauty a brains. >> but you have to deal with the rhode island winters. >> dartmouth's program is one of the largest, there are over 1,500 members, you can choose from over 100 courses per year.

>> let go south to lexington, keucky where there are a lot of opportunities at the university of kentucky. >> you can also audit courses with the undergrads if they're not filled and a lot of retirees say there's really fun. and there's a great downtown apgs. and you can always take a buf drive rough the horse countryside. >> what about the cost of these courses? >> most of them are membership based course where is you pay an annual fee, maybe $80 year, and then you'll pay something like $50 per course, but they're membship programs where you can participate and take a course and then there are also volunteers or member who is teach the courses as well. so if you have a lot of interest in churchill, you can teach a course in churchill if you want. >> let's head to the pacific northwest, which is a great

area. this is bellingham, washington between seattle and vancouver. >> exactly, it's sort of tucked between puget sound and the cascadeountains so you have access to two major metropolitan areas, but at the same time, bellingham has it's own distinct community. it has a vibrant water front, with the harbors, restaurants, a farmer's market. there are a lot of other retire yis there, that's partly do to the fact that the state has no income tax. >> 30% of the folks there or over the age of 50? >> that's probably at least some of the reason why they're there. >> durham, north carolina, part of the tri-cities there in the north carolina area. >> duriham along with chapel hill -- you get all four seasons, which is something that

a lot of retirees like yet sort of milder versions. the winters aren't going to be quite as frigid as they are in new england. the medn home price is only about $160,000 and durham is a former tobacco town, which is sort of emerging as a cultural haven, there's no art museums, the american dance festival happens there every year. >> very nice. and now finally wre going to go to the southwest. prescott, arizona. >> prescott is about 100 miles north of phoenix. so people would be surprised to know that because their elevation is just over 5,000 feet, they actually get all four seasons as well. whicis again something that retirees look for. and you can go hiking in prescott national forest. there's a beautiful courtyard plaza, there's a constant rotation of arts and craft fairs that are going on.

one retiree told us, if you get board in prescott, it's your own fault. >> i should say it used to be kind of pricey, but since 2007, the median home price is down over 35%. so it's more affordable "today" than it was few years ago. >> thank you so much. >> coming up on "today," a taste of fall with two delicious seasonal treats from the cake love man himself. "today's" wedding, a sweet surprise for melissa and germje. scream come true for "today's" weddin

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ancr: on september 2nd we took over a restaurant just for a day. then we made lunch for the neighbors. thousands of turkey burgers on us. to show people there's a burger that's as lean as it is delicious. it's really good. he loves the turkey burgers. if i can give her something that's good for her and lean, i'd totally make this for her. ancr: make the switch. look for jennie-o at atore near you.

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9:26 is your time, 70 degrees. it's a rainy monday morning. good morning. it's great that we're getting this much-needed rain but it is causing major problems on the roadways. let's get right to jerry edwards in the news 4 traffic network. >> good morning. as we take a live look on the at leas for now dry pavement along 395, beltway delays getting to 395 and then 395 all the way into town. athe moment the lanes are open. one more stop, we'll update you in maryland. left side of your screen, that's the inner loop from rockville pike to i-95, struggling to recover. earlier accidents have been cleared. still damp pavement and potentially slick. be careful. >> jerry, thank you. we'll be righback. promise me low prices. and stick to it. like seriously low prices. [ male announcer ] at safeway, we made a promise of low prices. and we're keeping it. [ female announcer ] with club card specials like pork loin rib half, 99 cents a pound

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good morning. we've had the rain taper off to some scattered sprinkles and drizzle around the metro area. the steadier rain has now moved off to our north. temperatures right now are in the 60s to near 70 degrees and we'l stay in this same range throughout much of the rest of the day. and there is a greater chance of some more rain returning this afternoon with some heavier downpours. also somethunder and lightning. also a risk of some daging winds from some isolated storms late this afternoon, overnight tonight into tomorrow morning. then we dry out tomorrow afternoon into wednesday. >> tom, thank you. news 4 will continue the conversation on education nation this midday. coming up at 11:00, we'llalk to school leaders about the state of

yeah, what's your favorite subjt? >> th. >> that's my worse subject. i was horrible in math. >> that's al going back to elementary school. it's part of "today's" week long look at education in america. tomorrow on "today," we'll see what al learned when he hit the books with the pint-sizeded set. so how was it? it's gre to go back, suspect? >> yes, but in a sense, you realize how much smarter they are "today." . >> and even what they're learning, seems beyond what i learned in fourth and fifth and sixth grade. and the pressure is even higher on these kids. >> but coming up in this half hour, as we continue to make a look at the state of education in america.

we're looking at the class of 2020, this morning natalee morales takes a look at what's on the mind of one little girl as she startses the new school year. >> we are making two seasonal treats to celebrate fall. cranberry apple cobbler -- >> apple cranberry cobbler. >> i guess because there are more apples thanranberry. and sweet potato cake. or potato cake that's sweet. >> i'm curious what the difference is between cobbler and pie. >> one has a crust, the other doesn't. >> there you have it. that's something i didn't know in coong "today." we're also going to show you a classic mexican dish. but first, al who knows all things. >> i don't know all things, but i do know about a buy's got a

crust. >> pie as a crust on the bottom. >> cobbler, cobbler doesn't have a crust. as we've had some passing showers this morning, much of that rain now has moved off to the north, the steadier rain. we just have some scattered sprinkles and drizzle. later, though, we will likely see the rain coming back and maybe with me thunder and lightning. right now it's near 70 degrees.

we'll hold in this same temperature range the rest of the day and we might get some thunder and lightning along with heavier downpours this afternoon, overnight tonight into tomorrow morning. small risk an isolated storm could produce wind damage. drying out tomorrow afternoon into wednesday. >> the debate continues. >> a third grader knows the difference between a cobbler and a pie. >> that 's rrible, al, thank you. >> up next, speaking of third ade, we're head back to the third grade as we check in with one member of the class of 2020. it also works wirelessly with your tv. "a," "b," "c," "d," "e," "" "g"... so his littlest actions make big things happen. green triangle ! duck ! the more he wiggles... the more he learns. and older kids like chloe... ♪ head shoulders... ... really get rockin' ♪ ... knees and toes... knees and toes ! ♪ you go, girl ! the learn & move music station only from fisher-price. ♪ play laugh grow

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kids and schools this week on education nation "today," it's time to check in on our class of 2020. we're following a group of students from their first day of kindergarten to their high school collage situation. graduation. we wanted to go back to where the series started and catch up with ourirst member of the class of 2020. >> how are you? >> good? >> summer is over and 8-year-o lauren is up early to start the new school year. >> what do you think is going to be different about third grade? >> much harder >> really? >> you think you can handle it? i think you can too. >> reporter: the 2007, we woke up with 5-year-old lauren on her first day of kindergarten. she started the morning with a few dollars from the tooth fairy and a special necklace from her

mom. >> they'realled mommy and me pendants, even though it's a big day and we'll be separated, we're always in each other's hearts, right. >> i need help with the tie. >> "todatoday no one would know lauren is wearing the necklace, but she'll keep it close to her heart. >> she said i really want to wear any heart necklace, i said it's not going to show up with your tie, but she said inow it's on. >> as independent a child a she is, it's really nice for me to see that side of her every once in ahile to really know that we're still really connected and that she needs her mom. >> welcomeo the third grade, whooo! >> third grade is under way and it's time to say goodbye to mom and dad. >> here's my goal, my goal is to help you grow up. lauren's new teacher says there

are no rules in her classroom, but a lot of expectations. >> why would it be helpful to raise your hand? >> because somebody else might have been rasing your hand but you just shouted out and they were going to say something also. >> so it's about being fair, isn't it? >> so you have to listen to me answer your question. >> reporter: today's first assignment to illustrate cooperation. and bullying. >> no bossing me. >> very good. so this would be an example of bossing or bullying, right? >> reporter: as the first day of third grade draws to a close, the teacher gives the kids a chance to get to know her and 150e67 other. >> i wanted to be a mechanic. >> it is mckenzie and her dream

is to be on a tv show. >> her dream is to be a famous singer. >> lauren uses the opportunity to find out more about natalee her friend, but also the rest of the world. >> what's the thinghat happened to me, i went to manilla for a trip. >> manilla? >> the phippines. >> when they were driving, and she kept asking me questions. why, why? and i said, why do you want to know why? she said, i want to know everything. >> the class of 2020, stusdents completed their mandatory te testing and we're happy to report that lauren did very well. >> up next, a simple way to spice up that same old chicken with mexican mole. right after this. . night after night, i sat up. sprayed up.

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this morning on "today's" kitchen, spicing up your chicken dinner with mole, host of the cooking chanl has a recipe you can pull off in no time. mole can take a couple of days? >> and anywhe between 20 and 40 ingredients. >> who's got the time. >> that's exactly the point as to why i'm making the recipe that i'm making. >> you tall thi a shortcut mole? >> i'm not intending to pass this off as a traditional mole. it's a mole -- the objective of

this easy, easy recipe, and again, so that people don't get mad of me. >> who would get mad of you. >> people get mad, espially when you're getting a traditional dish that has so much tradition, you show a shortcut, people get really upset. we've got tomatoes, we have got some onionnd some garlic, and the reason for coming up with these real shortcuts, jalapeno, that has been dried and smoked, so it's nice and smoky. we have got some raisins, again, this is my own doing with the raisins. so let's pretend that this is all cooked down. >> for about how long? >> about ten minutes, until it's soft, 20 minutes. we have it in here, we're going

to add two cups of chicken stock and then we have got some add to peanut butter. again, why peanut butter. give me a hand al, thank you. buy peanut butter? generally the mole has different nuts that you have to roast. everybody has peanut butter in their pantry. some cinnamon, some chile powder and now we're going to blend, blend, blend, very quickly. and just cover this. we don't want accidents on ur beautiful pink tie. >> are we ready? >> you're ready. there you go. oh, i think we're done. and now only because this is tv. weave got the sauce ready to go. and, again, you know, why create these really big shortcuts? because if you decide, if you have never had a mole, and you

look at a recipe tt has 40 ingredients and days of work, if you have never tried it, why would you do it? so this is a way of introducing it. now here comes what makes a mole, dark chocolate is about an ounce and a half, we have got it already fully cooked here. >> what else did you haven here? >> this is what we're going to put right now on our beauty plate and on our pot, these are pumpkin seeds, a little bit toasted, grinded and w put these on top. so, again, it's all healthy ingredies in the recipe. and the kicker is going to be a little bit of orange zest. if you are the kind of person that dint lioesn't like to bite orange zest. i like the color and the texture

on top. but again, it's a very personal thing. so this might get you inspired, if you make this recipe from beginning to end shouldn't take more than 25 minutes. then the next time you have five days off and time to go to 20 supermarkets, by all means please do. >> what else have you got here? >> we have got our delicious mexican cn soup. actually this month was mexican bisin sen yal and it's also mexican- and the corn soup is supersimple. corn tortillas, fried dough and we're going to do a little bit of parsley, a little bit of bake kbake -- bacon. >> you had me at fried dough. >> coming up next, classic cobblers and cakes, and what's the difference between a cobbler

this morning on "today's" kitchen, back to basics, fall favorites with apple picking and we're easing into the season with two tasty treats warren brown has recipes for every state in the nation. so we're making a cobbler and al said crust. >> i agree with you, definitely. >> i'm right. >> a cobbler can have a crust on the bottom, but for me, that just is a lot of extra work, so i usually do mine without the crust on the bottom. but it can have that. >> so i'm right, so let's get to

this amazing recipe. >> apple cobbler, one of my most favorite things in the world. i would start with peeled apples. >> use any type of apple? >> a variety of apples. i like the ones you just like to eat. but if you want to get some that are tart like granny smith's, you can do that. i have the topping, the crust, that's my favore part. and we have got butter and sugar, dark brown sugar, salt and a little bit of baking powder. >> is there way to make this low fat? >> you can d things if you want to try to make it a multigrain. i like to do it with a rolled oats sometimes. you can even do a littl flaxseed at times. make sure to grind it. so egg and rum and over the vanilla. and you just want to add a little bit. and the thing is, you have to make sure that it's clumpingup.

i have already brought all the butter in there. so when you clump it up, you're adding the egg, and you do it a little bit at a time. >> the finished products to make these pattys. >> we're going to lay them across the top. and when we do that, let's expand a little bit. and if you have any that's kind of gaps in there, you can take some of the extra and just sprinkle it down. >> how do you make it crispy? >> you can't add t much egg, if you add too much, it's too wet and soggy. but that will be really the right amount. if you want you can add aittle bit of extra cinnamon across the top. and even some freshly grateded nutmeg. >> that reminds me of the holidays. >> so you have extra syrup from the apples i like to take those and put it on some nuts of any kind. you've got blanched almonds here. >> toast them anded a them. so can i taste the finished

product. >> hi, al, good to see you. >> nice to see you. >> i think a cobbler can have a crust on the bottom. >> tell me abo this. >> sweet potato ke. >> and this is my favorite, with cream icing, we can go for any of these right now if you wou like. >> i would like to have some ice cream. chef warren brown, thank you for proving that i'm right. >> does that one have a crust at the bottom. >> no crust at the bottom. oh, look out! wow! coming up, the latest celebrity buzz coming up. whether it has a crust on the bottom or not, it is good. and he's got pie and ice cream. >> it's all coming up after your local news and weather. hey, ove, i'm gonna need a bank. any ideas?

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theost branches and atms in the dc area. what's in your wallet? ove, go long! 9:56 is your time now. 71 degrees. a rainy day and that means traffic problems. good morning, i'm eun yang. is been a busy morning but a few improvements. let's get to jerry edwards for the latest. >> good morning. yes, finally a little bit of a light at the end of the tunnel.

270 southbound no lane accidents, just sporadic slowdowns from germantown on down. everybody is keeping their pace and keeping their distance. one more stop, heavy but relatively steady, 395 to the 14th street bridge. no late accidents right now. all travel lanes are open. >> jerry, thank you. time to check on the forecast. tom, it's been raining. we need the rain, though. >> we had a respite from the raithe last couple of hours, it tapered off, but now it looks like we'll get a little more coming back in. where you see the blue on the radar, that is some light rn that's now moving south to north and is just now coming into culpeper. it's raining a little heavier farther to thesouth. north and wechlt there's scattered light sprinkles but it's going to change over to eadier rain as t morning prgresses and into the afternoon. right now 74 at national airport. these are probably going to be steady temperatures here the rest of the day holding steady in the 70s with some passing showers.

could get some heavier downpours this afternoon and this evening into tomorrow morning maybe with thunder and lightning. ybe two or three inches of rain. in addition a small risk of some damaging winds and the weather settles down after that. news 4 will continue the conversation on education nation this midday. coming up we'll t

from nbc news, this is "today" with kathie lee gifford and hoda kotb, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. hi, everybody. it is fun day, the 27th of september, and we're hoping you had a wonderful weekend. it is starting to feel like fall around he in new york. >> it is. we have got our big education plaza set up outside. it is shocking to watch how the plaza was transformed from -- >> just over the weekend. >> there are huge tents, all kinds of things. >> it is going to be a week-long thing. >> and it is all about kind of focusing on education and they say it was just coincidental that this waiting for superman document -- >> really? that seems incredible to me. >> that's what i said. but i heard that from jeff zucker himself. we have our secretary of agriculture here. >> secretary vilsack will be with us. >> we'll ask him that very question. because i have grown to be extremely cynical since i got here. >> you have? >> i don't think there are that

many coincidences in life. i believe jeff, but i want to hear it from the man himself, mr. vilsack. >> we'll find out. how was your weekend? >> it was slow. i'm glad i didn't go to the giants game yesterday. i watched it at home. oh, my gosh. >> what? >> i was on the treadmill, i had to turn it off, not the treadmill, the tv, several times. that would hurt if you suddenly turned off the tadmill. that was ugly and a lot of lack of sportsmship which i can imagine mrs. mara in the booth was furious. this guy lost the game for tm two times he was called for 15 yards. >> whatever his name is, but we know. >> he knows who he is, and i'm not the coach, but that's the one thini would never, ever allow. >>any kind of unsportsman-like conduct. the most heart breaking game and since we're talking football is the saints, in overtime, and i love the kicker and my heart broke for him. 20-yard kick, and i know that -- it is a head game and he msed it. god love him.

i can only imagine what he's feeling today and the falcons ended up winning which was a joke because the saints are ing to go all the way again. >> not that you're biassed in an way at all. you went to a big concert last night. >> cheryl crow was playing at -- ♪ change will do you good >> she was playing at radio city, got up on stage, had her microphone, i couple of pictures. i took bootleg video but apparently we're not allowed to show . >> completely illegal, hoda. >> everyone is doing it. >> secretary vilsack is here. he has other peop on sped dial. if i were you, cool it with the bootlegging stuff, hoda. >> most peoe aren't watching the concerts. it happens here on the plaza often. they're taking pictures -- they're not actually enjoying it. >> it is not illegal on the plaza. >> they're documenting it instead of listening to it. i found myself doing the whole thing. >> i watched the gossel go a picnic instead of taking a picture with your own family. >> paying too much attention to

other people. >> i had an interesting weekend because i spent it reading a particular book. >> i'm a little -- >> besides the bible. another bk. >> i'm a little -- okay, i have to say, okay, this is my book you're talking about. >> mm-hmm. >> coming soon! i have a question -- >> i think you can order it ght now on amazon. >> do you have an issue with it. i think you might have an issue. >> we'll discuss it when it mes out. >> what is the issue? >> did i not text you and tell you congratulations? >> yes, no, no, but i would like to know what it is. >> i don't think you went on and on about me enough, but anyway -- there are only three chapters. >> do you think i'm a pain in your royal something? >> sometimes. sometimes. >> you are in mine as well but i neglected to put that in my book. and the difference is you would know that had you read my book. eugh said. enough said. >> what else is going on? >> amy poehler. >> the guest host on "snl." we have been talking about, there is a controversy with katy

perry and "sesame street". she did a skit with elmo on "sese street" and they decided not to air that version. so "snl" decided to spoof the katy perry/elmo situation. >> it was a slow newsweek. they have to. [ applause ] >> who cares if kids are looking at boobs. boobs feed babies. i turn on "csi" the other nht and there is a guy with worms in his eyes about the we can't look at boobs. >> you do your thing at the library, you go for the books. >> katy perry is adorable. >> we were in the makeup room earlier this morning. we had one of these guys on who is called a supernatural entertainer i guess you call him. >> or mentalist. does not want to be called a magician, because it has nothing to do with what he says tricks.

>> he did a trick in the makeup room. >> he doesn't call them tricks, hoda. >> i do. because i freaked me out. i asked him to think of a number and he wrote it down and it was the right number. anyway, come on in. his name is leor shushard. >> nice to see you again. >> we have a couple of seconds. show us a trick. >> something. >> something. >> i'm going to ask you to think of something. >okay. >> clos your eyes. >> me or kathie lee? >> and i want you to think about something that nobody here knows. think about your first kindergarten or -- >> first grade teacher. >> is it anybody here who knows this name? >> can i open my eyesnd look around? >> keep your eyesclosed. >> i don't think so. >> one second. is it mrs. or miss. >> mrs. >> give me your hand for a second. there is no chance anybody here knows this, right? >> no. >> keep your eyes closed. >> okay. but what is the -- >> miss anderson?

anderson? >> no. >> anderson? no, no, no, really? is it close? >> peterson. >> you saw how close it was. >> you're creeping me out. i'll tell you why -- >> let me tell you why. is is jim. i met him a few seconds. can i borrow your glasses for a second. i'll move you a little bit to the side. >these are not going to be the same -- >> don't worry about i i need you to help me here. put your hand on my right hand like this. >> which hand? >> your left. >> you two are getting very close. >> your right on my left. look athe glasses in the center. . >> what happened? >> they moved a little bit. >> where's the string? >> what happened? >> i told you it is not tricked. it is moved with your power. >> our power had so much to do with it. >> we're going to visit with you in a little bit. we need our floor director to have his glasses. >> thinking positive. >> okay.

we have to survive around here. shall we go to our esteemed secretary of agriculture. >> i'm thlled to have him with us, aren't you? secretary tom vilsack is with us. secretary vilsack, come on us. >> big week around here. >> absolutely. >> what a pleasure. we're hosting a lunch with you a little later onoday and we're talking about school lunches, which are in desperate need of -- >> historically and traditionally they have been one of the worst offenders in terms of our children's health? >> we have recently done a study, too much sugar, too much sodium, too much fat, not enough whole wheat, low fat dairy and vegetables. we're going to try to change that. >> not enough of any of the good stuff. >> well, some of the good stuff, but not enough. not enough. we have two issues here. we have about 17 million children in the country today that live in food insecure homes. so school breakfast and school lunch -- >> they're hungry kids. >> maybe the only meal they get. >> wow. thats unbelievable in the richest country in the world. >> on the other hand, we have a third of our youngsters obese or at risk of being obese. this is an issue we have to deal

with when youngsters may receive a third to half of their calories at school. >> you think about a school mal costs $1.31, what we'll do at 12:30 is have chefs come in and come up with ways to make $1.31 meal healthy, delicious and -- >> and according to fda standards. this is personal for you because you grew up allenged with your own weight. >> a little challenge. >> a little picture of you. >> you were cute. >> you were adorable. you look like spanky. >> some very serious research here. >> we are nbc news, that's hard to believe when you're standing next t me, but anyway. >> investigative eporting, i didn't realize i was going to have that today. >> we look forward to our lunch time withou. so hopefully people will tune in on msnbc at 12:30. >> we're also following up on what you all are doing. we're having a chef's contest and recipe contest aswell. >> and school kids will determine the winner. >> that's right.

top 30 recipes go into a cookbook and they'll all be on the web, so cooks around the world and arou the country can take advantage of them. >> excellent. thank you very much, sir. >> we'll see you in a little bit. >> in a bit. thank you so much. favorite thing time. >> favorite things. you go ahead, you start. >> i always bring a thing in for myfavorite thing and this time i decided to bring a photo of a person. and that's my friend karen, who i visited this weekend. i was in boston. i have to tell you, there are rtain -- >> is that catherine? >> that's catherine, a few years ago, but she loves this picture, so i put it back on. we sat on the couch from friday, i thinkat 6:00, and got off the couch maybe twice during our whole weekend. her husband was sosweet. >> you needed that. >> yeah. >> hashe read your book? >> not yet. not yet. >> she comes off great. >> so do you! wait, are you serious? >> no, no. >> you really don't -- >> guess what, two of my rl friends are here, two of my dearest friends, they have -- they're going to be with us a

little bit later. they are -- they have been in the amerian vernacular forever. it is the lenin sisters. kathy and janet lenin. i've been in this business for 45 years and i don't think that of everybody i've ev met, and i've known forever and ever, nobody has been more consistently the nicest two people you'll ever meet in your life. i was playing -- there i am with them on stage in branson, missouri. >> oh, my gosh. >> i've been playing with their paper dolls since i was a little girl myself. to become friends with them was such a thrill in my life. the latest thing they have, the two little dolls they played with. >> best pals. >> called best pals. these are the new ones you can get -- >> in a suitcase. >> this o is kathy, a little nightgown with it, and a brand-new little cd that only comes with this one. and the other- it comes in this darling little kit. guess what, one of these is for hannah. you want khy or janet? >> now i'm going to -- i don't know. they're both here.

i'd like either one. >> i'm going to gift other one to isabella at my house. >> you pick. i'll takewhichever one. >> you pick. >> thank you. thank you. >> and those are only available on qvc. darling little suitcase. sara, what is your farite? >> mine is this laptop cover from looped works, it is all upcycled material. the company does really cool things and each piece is completely unique. but i just love the fact that they're trying to stop filling land fills and it is cool. it is made out of scuba, scuba suit. >> you're kidding? >> yeah. >> those things. >> next time you dive with your laptop it totally safe! >> cool. >> are you mad about the book? >> no, stop. >> okay. >> not much. >> okay, up next, it is not an event without miss laura innes. i watched it. >> find out why 11 million other people watched it too. they'll always remember this christmas.

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♪ to sing songs like a meadow lk ♪ ♪ stretch and yawn ♪ blow a kiss to mom ♪ cause pop-tarts mornings are the bomb ♪ ♪ so, rise and shiiiiine have been waiting for 66 years. their patience is running out. >> is that a threat? >> you wanted the truth. i'm giving it to you. >> mm. >> that's laura innes, one of the stars of nbc's new show "the event" where she playa mysterious soph maguire and it is getting lots of people

watching. >> the former "er" star traded in her stethoscope for handcuffs. >> you kinky woman. >> i get to keep those so -- >> a lot of people watch the show, but the promos caught your attention because everyone kept going what's the event, what's the event, what's the event. we still don't know, right? >> still don't know. my 9-year-old daughter is like what's the event? we cannot tell. it is a big secret. >> i read that, depending on what you play on this particular show, you know more than your co-workers. like jason ritter knows nothing. all he knows is his fiancee disappears and he spends the whole series loong for her. >> you taped all separately? >> you know what they did when they were casting the show, they gave us secret dossiers, and it contains information about our character, but not the other characters and we're not supposed to, like, peek and look at each other's secret. >> you might play it differently. >> play it differently and it is also, i don't know it kind of fun. it creates this little sort of game of it, and it has been very

fun to work on it. it is such a different genre than "er" that it has been really a pleasure. >> how was it when you all came together to watch the first episode because you probably didn't know -- >> we saw the premiere at evan katz, our executiv producer's house, but we saw the pilot as a cast inhe spring. and when we read the script we all loved the script. but, like you said, we were never filming at the same time, so when we all sat down to watch it, we were so happy and reieved and we were all just, like, wow, this is really cool. it works. >> when you have to spend that many hours on somethg, you better be passionate about or your attitude can change really quickly. i read you didn't -- you first were interested -- somebody wanted you to play a different role and you were not interested that one. and this was originally to be a man, your character. >> yeah. i read the script and i loved the script. the writer is a young guy named nick waters and wrote this very, very tight script and they had called me about a particular

part. and it wasn't that interesting to me, but i said, great, good luck. so they said, wait, what if we change this character into a woman. and that was very, very intriguing to me because she's sort of the hub. >> you're like the angelina jol jolie. >> they did that for her. >> that's wer. >> it was wonderful because thas the way the world works sometimes. sometimes the male parts are a little more juicy. >> imagine that. >> imagine that. >> if you miss t, is it a combination of "lost" and "24," people say it seems like a combo platter of the two. >> that's aretty good way to put it. we're basically a 99% political nspiracy they. so a little more of the "24" but 1%, 10% of the mystery. and it is really fun. it is very much a fusion of a lot of different genres. >> a tad of supernatural. >> a little bit of that. >> it is terrific. it is terrific. i enjoyed it so much. you can catch "the event," though not the entire event, tonight at 9:00, 8:00 central time here on nbc. >> all right.

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>> can you bend, like -- >> all of those at one time? it is hard to do this but we'll try an experiment. i asked a few -- to bring a few people inside. can we call them? >> co on i ladies. >> come in quickly. we never before correctly. you're here. i will try to do some experiments. >> okay. >> first of all, quickly think about your favorite number from 1 to 100, don't say it. ready? 1 to 100, yourss 10, correct? weird. >> a little bit. >> you're not thinking of 10. when she said 10, you thinkhalf of it, you think of 5. >> what? >> yes. >> see her smile over there. what's your name? >> lorraine. >> by the way -- >> how come u didn't know that? i'm just asking. >> because i'm trying to concentrate on specific stuff here. >> i'm not good for that. >> i want to do something on you. >> sure. >> more complicated. by the way, would you swear you didn't tell me anything, correct?

>> swear. >> correct. 88, correct? >> yes. >> now that's impressive. >> i know. now the things i do i deal with people's mines. i enter their thoughts, influence their mind, crazy stuff. i'm going to ask you because people are very skeptical, they think something is set up. you're here to be witnesses. i would like you to think in your mindof a memor something funny, don't tell me anything. >> you asked me this before the show, down in my dressing room and i did it. >> but didn't tell me anything, correct? >> no, no. >> it is important to tell everybody nobody in the studio knows this, correct? >> right. >> look into my eyes. christmas. it is in christmas. >> yes. >> yes. and something funny, you were dancing orsomething? >> no. >> something with your clothes. >> yeah. >> wait, wait. >> you don't have clothes. >> that's right. >> i don't want to continue because that -- yeah? >> yes. >> you were naked at christmas?

>> naked at christmas, yes. >> what's the story? >> a very spiritual thing in our home. i was a little kid and i was so excited for christmas morning, i came running down the stairs without pants on and my daddy had the video camera going. >> what? >> had to go back in time like 20 years into the past when she was - >> oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. now i like you. okay. >> see more of this, next month -- >> what is going on here? >> you're going to be at the palms in vega >> in the palmsin vegas. i'm going to bend some people's minds over there. >> let me see the -- i want to see the spoon first. i don't know if i believe it. >> look what is happening. slowly. >> would it work if it was on our -- >> wait, we didn't see if it was a real spoon. hold on. >> check this spoon, che ts one, check this one. >> why only this one? >> i want to check this one. >> would it work if it were in our hand? >> of course. check this one also. >> d you switch it? >> yes. >> close it like this. and are you ready? tell me if you feel something -- come close. tell me if you feel something

strange. ready? you feel it is getting to be more and more plastic. >> is it? >> a little bit. >> feel it a little bit? >> you can see it moving. >> i see it moving. >> see how it is trying to -- like, the molecules inside are moving more and more. >> we have ten seconds, where are you going to be? the palm? >> the palms hotel in las vegas. >> the palms in las vegas. >> there you go. you've got strawberry pop-tart, but i've got a warm, fresh bake strawberry toaster strel. see the difference?

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this moing president obama was asked about d.c. schools and the quality of education his daughters could get in public schools. coming up on news 4 midday we'll tell you what he had to say. good morning, everyone, i'm barbara harrison. also coming up tom kierein will tell us how much rain to expect and have the latest on the possility of severe weather. news 4 midday bens at 11:00 a.m. we h [ male announcer ] are you paying more and more for cable

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we're back and this fun day with today's buzz and the entertainment news that anybody can handle for oneday. >> we're talking tinseltown d beyond. with us are bonnie fuller, editor in chief of hollywoodlife.com and gossip gram's roseanne coletty. so, lindsay in jail again and then bonded out. >> kept us busy all weekend. first in il, than $300,000 of ba, out of jail, then she went to rehab her image. went to a homeless shelter on saturday night, and was signing autographs and handing out purs. >> how is that going over? that? homeless shelter signing, book signing. >> anything she can do at this time would be good. >> don't you think it is kind of transparent. it seems like at this point going to a homeless shelter isn't what people want to see. >> we want to see her going to rehab, stay long enough to actually get cured and come out and do all the good work she can. >> the word out of her camp is she's vestigating rehabs now

in the l.a. area. >> just pick one of them. you know wat i'm saying, ilove what the quote was, she's now starting to take her rehab seriously. >> yes. and she has said that so many times >> it is about time. long overdue. >> it is so troubling, especially when pictures like allegedly come out today. >> on tmz, from 2007, they show somebody, you can't really i guess tell 100% who the person is, we don't know if it is lindsay lohan or not, but it shows supposedly -- >> injecting drugs. >> which is seemed to be heroin. >> very disturbing. >> and into the back as well. that's a serious allegation. >> if it is lindsay that would show the depth of her addiction and why everything has been so problematic. but don't know for sure. >> there is another one as well where she's supposedly-- has paris hilton sitting on her lap in full makeout mode. >> that's not surprising. they were partying together all the time,hey both have been

you know, caught kissing other women. >> there is pictures of me and hoda out there, let's be honest, but it comes with thterritory. in light of this other, you know, it just -- >> it is so -- and how in the world did she get the insurance paid on her to go forward and do is motion picture they're waiting on her to do. >> they're moving it up. they're moving up the date, moving the location. >> a million llars to get her insured to do the pictu. >> the thing is that supposedly they're moving the shooting to l.a. so they can still do it and yet people are not very hoful about this movie. it is not getting a lot of positive prebuzz. >> and it would have to be an x-rated movie because it is a life of the porn queen, linda lovace. >> the thing is, you look at the weekend box office and you have a movie called "easy ace" starng emma stone and she's the new lindsay, a red head, a disney star, it did fantastic and lindsay has to look at that -- >> no issues.

very low key. >> has a private fe. >> i'm surprised that movie did that well. i saw it, i was surprised. >> i didn't like the way the christian kids were portrayed so incredibly stereotypical as completely hypocritical and completely geekish and i think that's incrediy offensive to a huge amount of kids out there that are not like that at all and really do live their lives with integrity. and that was a che shot. >> well, the thing is, though, themovie did very well, apparently only cost $8 million to make and now she is being talked about as a potenti star in "spider-man". >> she was terrific in i she was terrific in it. our point is not -- is off subject, but still we have been wanting to make it. >> good point. >> "wall reet,"oo of course was a home run. >> i tught it would do more. $19 million. i thought it would do better than that this weekend. >> it is his biggest movie he's ever had, his biggest opening. >> really? >> still consider it to be a very good opening by the

industry. >> ben affleck is doing well. >> let's get to demi and ashton. that's been on the front cover of magazines, is there cheating? what's the story? >> any evidence there? >> they have been doing their best to keep the rumors at bay. they went party hopping with their daughter tallulah on sunday. the were very lovie dovy. they were sitting, you know, being very affectionate. >> they tweeted, demi tweeted a picture of herself and ashton in bed on their fifth anniversary, which i believe was thursday or friday, and showing them snuggling together. >> that's too much information too. that seems a little in your face, you know, like see, see, we're still -- she doesn't need to do that, does she? >> exactly. they were at the global initiative on thursday and they were all holding hands. all over each other, again. >> it is interesting is this britney jones, who has these tweets apparently, is claiming

she's also friends with demi. >> the alleged paramour. >> the alleged paramour. >> i hope it is not true. i like them together. >> i hope it isot true about anybody, except for me and hoda. >> exactly. comi up next, how involved you should be in your child's school work. did you know go-gurt is specially made to freezand thaw by lunch time? so kids can have their favorite yogurt in their lunch box go-gurt. freeze it. thaw it. eat it up. take off that mask. lose that heavy makeup look,

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it is day one o education nation here at nbc news. where all week long we'll be raising your awareness about the state of education in our country. today we begin with basic skills. >> we a know reading, writing and arithmetic are essential to success in school and in life, but what many people don't know is how to help your strgling student. sarah picard taylor is wh columbia university and joseph alameda is a sixth grade math teacher at a charter school here in new york city. we're delighted to have you bo here today. >> you hear the numbers, we were talking about today where it says a child drops out of school every 11 seconds. if you think about right now and in ten more seconds, you know, you can't believe that's happening. what is the essential issue or problem do you guys think? >> i think one thing we all need to think abouts partnering together. parents, teachers,

administrators, community advocates, so that 11 seconds doesn't happen anmore. we all need to come together. >> i have a friend, won't name names at all, whose daughter just dropped out of high school, to go at night, from 7:00 to 9:00 because she w bored out of her mind at school all day long, and probably getting into some trouble as a result of that. why are the kids so bored? >> the content needs toe stimulating for students. and if the content isn't stimulating and the teacher doesn't know how to make the connections for the students, i think that's where the boredom comes in. knowing what your students' interests are is very important. >> sometimes i think that parents, my kid just doesn't like it when we hav't really asked them what are you interested inreading, do you love dinosaurs? let's get you some dinosaur books. >> you found a wayo tap into a math portion, and sometimes that's difficult to get kids interested in math. >> sure was for me. how are you doing it?

>> one of the things that makes math a lot of fun is we incorporate a lot of sgs into our curriculum. one thing i'm interested ins helping kids understand the basic parts of imagimathematics. if the kids d't have the one to one correspondence where they're counng objects or the kids don't understand how to do a certain computation, then they're not going to be set up for success if they can't add, subtract multiply and divide. >> are we passing children who should not be passed and just making it so much more difficult along e line? sometime somebody has to say you didn't learn the material, you can't go forward. why do we keep letting kids passing? >> a couple of things parents want to keep in mind. when they see their child struggling, go to school, get involved, know who the players are before that happens. know your child's teacher, go to curriculum night, so lines of communication are strong from the beginning. >> so your child sees -- i guess when your child sees you and the

teacher together -- >> she's on to me. >> they also get so discouraged if it isn't done quickly. it is a snowball effect and they give up, despair of it. >> we have a couple of parents, carol, who is just in our studio from chicago, out in the rain and came in to ask a question. hey, carol. >> carol fom illinois. and my question is how do we keep our students engaged in math and science so that they can pursue ceers in those fields as adults? >> i can see that's tough to keep them interested, sometimes it is not fun. >> i think one of the things that makes kids turn off to mathematics is hearing from their parents that i wasn't good at mathematics myself. i think having a positive attitude with learning is really important. the other thing is in the classroom, i have a hip-hop institute that i conduct and i'm teaching e kids mathematics, we' building the excitement there in teaching them and it is not just about numbers. >> not every kid is supposed to be a mathematician, isn't that true as well? shouldn't we be teaing our

children more to their own strengths earlier in theilife s s so we findout what they like and get strong in that. >> if you see a child loves building, show them career paths on that trck. >> they'll need to know math. >> it is also about giving them the problem solving skills early. to get them used to it. >> that was my problem, i never had hip-hop. >> you guys are doing great work. we can't tha you enough for coming on our show. and hi to your mom too. >> up next, the icarly star about to educate us. we love this kid, about hethy lunches forour kids. right after this. >> i remember that. >> he's adorable. and put peanut butter inside. [ whispering ] i add a couple chocolate chips when dad's starting the car. [ male announcer ] there's only one way to eat an ggo...your wa [ quinn ] l'eggo my eggo. [ louise ] my name is louise and this is my eggo. on tuesday i go in even earlier than usual. thk goodness for eggo,

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time for "today's kitchen" and we're getting saucy with reed alexand. he was here before, we barely got through it. what can tis kid possibly know about food? a lot.

you'll be surprised. >> reed is serving as champion for the empowerment movement, working to combat childhood obesity which is why we asked the entertaining actor to stop by and visit us. >> and find us healthy reces your kids will not want to trade. let's get started, big guy. >> let's start cooking. healthy delicious school lunches and snacks, let's get in here, be a team, chick nuggets, they're not deep fried. that's the trick. i need you to handle the spices and you're going to handle the herbs, please. i'm adding crushed up corn flake cereal, panko bread crumbs. i'm going to put the coating together. all that salt. >> all the salt? >> a ton of different herbs, really setting these apart. basil, margarine, parsley, so delicious. >> what is this? >> black pepper. >> dump it. >> yes, absolutely. >> what is that? >> that's just garlic powder. simple staples. there is our coating.

i'm pretty tricky in the kitchen. >> i know you are. >> w have some white meat chick. i cut this into little chunks just like our nuggets. i'm dipping it into egg whites, not deep frying this. that's why we made our coating. our egg whites are our glue. this is going to be super christie, nchri crispy, not deep fried but pan fried. notick, we're browning both sides, searing in the flavor and the juices. >> sounds like it is going to be awesome. >> thank you. we'll try it just a moment. i want some feedback. we have some -- hoda, take these out for these, put them on my baking sheet, 12 to 15 nuts. >> did you say please? >> yes, please and thank you. >> of course. >> 350 degrees, 12 to 15 minutes. >> cook them all the way through. >> cook them all the way through. >> don't want any chick then th isn't all -- >> now it is really crty. that's the trick to getting that crunch. >> then you put it in. >> then you bake it. bake it, it is 100% cooked.

see how easy that is. >> hello. >> great to throw in the lunch box, perfect to serve room temrature. you will love this. >> okay. >> if you're looking for a great snack, why turn to a potato when you can make hot apple pie fries instead of french fries. >> ale pie frys? >> yes, i know. i want you to try this. >> hoda loves her french fries, re. >> what are we pouring in there? >> cardamom, cinnamon, all pi spice. >> on your daysff from "icarly," this is what you do? >> i'm so glad to be sharing it you guys. >> one of our favorites, reed alexander. >> thank you. >> they said you were a little crazy, but we didn't believe it. >> i'm a little nutty. >> nobody enjoys life more than you. >> thank you. i enjoy it when i'm here with you guys. >> not on the set of "icarly," huh? >> it is smuch fun. we have an amazing time. we're all really passionate about it and, you know, we're just so glad people enjoy the show. >> they love it. it is auge hit. >> come on. >> let' taste this stuff. >> taste this, you guys.

if you're looking for a great dessert to go with this chicken, and the apple pie fries, i'm good, i'm glad, thank you, this -- >> wow. did you like it? good. try this popcorn. this is peanut butter, honey, for the chicken, light oriental dipping sace, what's easier? >> this kid is amazing. >> oh, thank you >> reed alexander for president in 2030. we'll be back with my favorites, the lennon sisters, but first this is "today" on nbc. awesome. [ male announcer ] are you paying more and more for cable and enjoying it less and less? stop paying for second best. upgrade to verizon fios and get tv, internet and phone for just $99.99 a month for a ar. call nownd we'll include this unbtable bonus:

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♪ i know >> hear the song? if you remember it, you're as old as my mother, frank and the twinkie. if you don't, chances are your parents or grandparents will because the lennon sisters were hitmakers in 1956. >> they made their debut on "the lawrence welk show" and 55 years later, they're still going strong and celebrating. look who's with us. >> i remember when you called me

and said, can you believe it it is going to be 50 years this christmas and now five years later and you're still going strong. >> on christmas eve, 55 years since we debuted on "lawrence welk". > you were what age? >> ias 9. >> and 12. >> was that the only audition you ever had was for "lawrence welk". >> the actually only one. >> we were on f 13 years after that, every saturday night. it was incredible. >> a big family too, wasn't it? >> that was just it. it was a family time, it was an innocent time, it was a special time in television. >>elevision was brand-new, you know, and people sat every saturday night and watched. >> every kid across america wanted to either be peggy or d.d. or janet or kathy and we all had our paper dolls. there nothing i can think about -- now it is like dora the explorer or something like that where little girls want to be that other little girl. it was a sweet tim you had such an incredible family life away from television, when you see stuff

like going on with lindsay lohan now and iis the antithesis of the lennon family. >> we were blessed at that time for us and our family kept it that way. we come from a family of 11 children. we would sing on "the lawrence welk" show and come home, change the babies' diapers, brothers and sisters' diapers, did our homework, went to school. >> we had to do dishes at night. >> were you ever enticed or do something -- now you to do somethg really, really terrible to get noticed, but were you ever -- >> we were on movie magazines all the time. and it was always things like the night janet became a woman, she turned 16 years old and we gave her a surprise party. >> janet did a few things in her life, you know, believe me. >> we love these dolls, by the way. >> these are the originals. >> the originals. >> these are the originals. >> who gave them to you, do you remember? >> our mom and our nana made them for us at christmas time when i was 3 and kathy was 6 and they were hanging out of our

stockings. we ved them so much, we took them on the road with us. >> they're winning awards at toy fairs. people are coming back to what we love so much when we were little, something that is -- doesn't talk necessarily, doesn't have, you know -- >> it is imagination, you snow. >> that's the wd i was looking for. love you. love you. >> now we hope to seeome of you in branson, missouri. >> come to branson. >> guess who is with us tomorrow? >> phil collins. >> i know. have a great day, everybody.